Digital-Based Potentiostat and Mesoporous Microelectrode Co-Design for Non-Enzymatic Glucose Detection at 0.3V-VDD and 1.65nW-Power

This paper presents a proof-of-concept ultra-low voltage and ultra-low power chronoamperometric electrochemical sensor for non-enzymatic glucose readout integrated circuit (IC) in 130nm CMOS detection featuring a reconfigurable Digital-Based (DB) Potentiostat. The signal transfer and noise characteristics of the new digital-based architecture are analytically described in the frequency domain for the first time by an equivalent linearized model that is validated by simulations and experiments. Based on experiments, the proposed DB potentiostat enables the detection of a wide electrochemical current range, spanning from 600pA to 650nA, with R2=0.991 linearity and consumes only 1.65nW (53.5nW) at V dd = 300mV (V dd = 500mV). The proposed DB readout is tested in a proof of-concept platform for non-enzymatic glucose detection with nanostructured microelectrodes, demonstrating successful non enzymatic glucose detection at physiological levels at the lowest reported voltage and power, even in the presence of an interferent (ascorbic acid) and under aerobic conditions, thus revealing a strong potential for emerging Point of Care (PoC) diagnostics applications.