High-density CMOS Microelectrode Array System for Impedance Spectroscopy and Imaging of Biological Cells

Proc IEEE Sens. 2017 Jan 26:2016:1-3. doi: 10.1109/ICSENS.2016.7808761.

Abstract

A monolithic measurement platform was implemented to enable label-free in-vitro electrical impedance spectroscopy measurements of cells on multi-functional CMOS microelectrode array. The array includes 59,760 platinum microelectrodes, densely packed within a 4.5 mm × 2.5 mm sensing region at a pitch of 13.5 μm. The 32 on-chip lock-in amplifiers can be used to measure the impedance of any arbitrarily chosen electrodes on the array by applying a sinusoidal voltage, generated by an on-chip waveform generator with a frequency range from 1 Hz to 1 MHz, and measuring the respective current. Proof-of-concept measurements of impedance sensing and imaging are shown in this paper. Correlations between cell detection through optical microscopy and electrochemical impedance scanning were established.

Keywords: CMOS Microelectrode Array (MEA); Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy; Electrophysiology; Lock-in Amplifier.