Nano and Microelectronics for Integrated Sensor Arrays

本研究介绍了新的制造方法和集成电路，将产生一个微型传感器平台，由高速计算机嵌入高保真纳米传感器阵列组成。特别是，它将把纳米传感器芯片和微电子计算芯片这两种先进技术在物理上合并为一个单元。纳米器件将在非常细微的尺度上感知现象（例如纳米颗粒）并将其转化为电子信号；微电子器件将对这些信号进行敏感的放大、数字化、计算和通信，用于高速数字分析和显示。该研究在蛋白质分析、快速DNA测序、病毒检测、纳米颗粒过滤等功能方面的应用涵盖了科学、医学和工业领域。从历史上看，从这里考虑的规模技术构建的系统大大降低了成本和可访问性等障碍。因此，这项研究不仅会带来更好的粒子识别平台，而且会大大提高人们对依赖该技术的应用的访问。由于当代纳米传感器芯片通常缺乏固有的计算手段，而当代微电子技术通常缺乏适当的传感能力，因此需要在这些技术之间建立工程连接。通常，这种连接是通过宏观互连来实现的，导致系统体积庞大且价格昂贵。纳米传感器与计算机芯片的融合不仅可以大大减小系统的尺寸，而且可以使传感器具有智能的内部连接和相互连接，从而显著提高系统的性能。特别是，这将提高单个纳米器件的处理速度，减少模拟信号在长距离通信中积累的损耗，增加并行工作的传感器数量，并允许它们的测量仅在少数宽带数字通信链路中汇总。纳米传感器与计算机芯片的融合才刚刚开始出现，并且包含许多未解决的挑战，本研究将寻求在特定模式的背景下解决这些挑战。这个问题的本质也需要一个融合了几个概念元素的解决方案：设备、电路和系统。从设备的角度来看，这项研究将侧重于将传感器阵列粘附到计算机芯片上的微制造技术。目前，它们之间的工作微连接仍未实现。这方面的研究将从微观中介媒介的连接逐步推进到技术之间的直接融合。从电路的角度来看，本研究将侧重于设计高速，低噪声的模拟电路，以放大来自传感器的低功耗信号。它将超越其他作品，不仅在其核心性能上，而且在其扩展到比目前设想的更多渠道的能力上。它将逐步从现有电子设备的优化到采用外来集成电路技术，以提高速度和低功耗。从系统的角度来看，本研究将侧重于设计一个高效的数字读出系统，该系统能够充分采样并将放大后的模拟信号传输给外界。目前还没有这样的集成系统用于考虑中的传感器，即使是单个通道，更不用说庞大的读出阵列了。这项工作将作为一个开创性的概念验证，展示了在纳米传感器网络环境中处理许多异步通道的有效方法。它还将解决电子干扰和可持续的热足迹和物理足迹等基本问题。

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.