Nano and Microelectronics for Integrated Sensor Arrays

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This research introduces new fabrication methods and integrated circuits that will result in a miniscule sensor platform consisting of a high-speed computer embedded with a high-fidelity nanosensor array. In particular, it will physically merge two advanced technologies, nanodevice sensor chips and microelectronic computing chips into a single unit. The nanodevices will sense phenomena at very fine scales (e.g. nanoparticles) and turn them into electronic signals; the microelectronics will perform sensitive amplification, digitization, computation, and communication on those signals for high-speed digital analysis and display. The applications of this research to functions such as protein analysis, rapid DNA sequencing, virus detection, nanoparticle filtering, etc. span interests in science, medicine, and industry. Historically, systems built from technologies-of-scale as considered here substantially lower barriers such as cost and accessibility. As a result, this research will lead not only to superior particle identification platforms but also greatly improve people’s access to applications relying on such technology.Since contemporary nanosensor chips often lack an inherent means for computation and contemporary microelectronics often lacks suitable sensory ability an engineered connection between these technologies is needed. Typically, such links are facilitated with macroscale interconnect resulting in bulky and expensive systems. Fusing nanosensors with computer chips will not only greatly reduce the system size, it will significantly improve its performance by endowing the sensors with intelligent intra and inter-connect. In particular this will improve the processing speed of individual nanodevices, reduce the losses accrued by analog signals communicated over long distances, increase the number of sensors operating in parallel, and allow their measurements to be aggregated in only a few broadband digital communication links.The fusion of nanosensors with computer chips has only begun to emerge and consists of many unaddressed challenges that this research will seek to resolve in the context of a particular modality. The nature of the problem also requires a solution that fuses several conceptual elements: devices, circuits, and systems.From the device perspective this research will focus on microfabrication techniques for adhering an array of sensors to a computer chip. At present a working micro-connection between these remains unrealized. This aspect of the research will advance in steps from a connection mediated by a micro-interposer to a direct fusion between the technologies.From the circuit perspective this research will focus on the design of high-speed, low-noise analog circuitry to amplify the low-power signals available from the sensors. It will surpass other work not only in its core performance, but in its ability to scale to many more channels than presently contemplated. It will advance in steps from the optimization of existing electronics to the adoption of exotic integrated circuit techniques for improved speed and low power consumption.From the system perspective this research will focus on the design of an efficient digital readout system capable of sufficiently sampling and communicating the amplified analog signal to the outside world. No such integrated system presently exists for the sensors under consideration even for a single channel, let alone a vast readout array. This work will serve as a seminal proof-of-concept showing efficient means of handling many asynchronous channels in a nanosensor network context. It will also address fundamental issues such as electronic interference and sustainable thermal and physical footprints.