Kevin T. C. Chai

Multiplexed detection of cardiac biomarkers in serum with nanowire arrays using readout ASIC.

Early detection of cardiac biomarkers for diagnosis of heart attack is the key to saving lives. Conventional method of detection like the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is time consuming and low in sensitivity. Here, we present a label-free detection system consisting of an array of silicon nanowire sensors and an interface readout application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This system provides a rapid solution that is highly sensitive and is able to perform direct simultaneous-multiplexed detection of cardiac biomarkers in serum. Nanowire sensor arrays were demonstrated to have the required selectivity and sensitivity to perform multiplexed detection of 100 fg/ml troponin T, creatine kinase MM, and creatine kinase MB in serum. A good correlation between measurements from a probe station and the readout ASIC was obtained. Our detection system is expected to address the existing limitations in cardiac health management that are currently imposed by the conventional testing platform, and opens up possibilities in the development of a miniaturized device for point-of-care diagnostic applications.

The electronic stethoscope

AbstractMost heart diseases are associated with and reflected by the sounds that the heart produces. Heart auscultation, defined as listening to the heart sound, has been a very important method for the early diagnosis of cardiac dysfunction. Traditional auscultation requires substantial clinical experience and good listening skills. The emergence of the electronic stethoscope has paved the way for a new field of computer-aided auscultation. This article provides an in-depth study of (1) the electronic stethoscope technology, and (2) the methodology for diagnosis of cardiac disorders based on computer-aided auscultation. The paper is based on a comprehensive review of (1) literature articles, (2) market (state-of-the-art) products, and (3) smartphone stethoscope apps. It covers in depth every key component of the computer-aided system with electronic stethoscope, from sensor design, front-end circuitry, denoising algorithm, heart sound segmentation, to the final machine learning techniques. Our intent is to provide an informative and illustrative presentation of the electronic stethoscope, which is valuable and beneficial to academics, researchers and engineers in the technical field, as well as to medical professionals to facilitate its use clinically. The paper provides the technological and medical basis for the development and commercialization of a real-time integrated heart sound detection, acquisition and quantification system.

Dual mode acoustic wave sensor for precise pressure reading

In this letter, a Microelectromechanical system acoustic wave sensor, which has a dual mode (lateral field exited Lamb wave mode and surface acoustic wave (SAW) mode) behavior, is presented for precious pressure change read out. Comb-like interdigital structured electrodes on top of piezoelectric material aluminium nitride (AlN) are used to generate the wave modes. The sensor membrane consists of single crystalline silicon formed by backside-etching of the bulk material of a silicon on insulator wafer having variable device thickness layer (5 μm–50 μm). With this principle, a pressure sensor has been fabricated and mounted on a pressure test package with pressure applied to the backside of the membrane within a range of 0 psi to 300 psi. The temperature coefficient of frequency was experimentally measured in the temperature range of −50 °C to 300 °C. This idea demonstrates a piezoelectric based sensor having two modes SAW/Lamb wave for direct physical parameter—pressure readout and temperature cancellatio...

Parasitic analysis and π-type Butterworth-Van Dyke model for complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor Lamb wave resonator with accurate two-port Y-parameter characterizations.

The parasitic effects from electromechanical resonance, coupling, and substrate losses were collected to derive a new two-port equivalent-circuit model for Lamb wave resonators, especially for those fabricated on silicon technology. The proposed model is a hybrid π-type Butterworth-Van Dyke (PiBVD) model that accounts for the above mentioned parasitic effects which are commonly observed in Lamb-wave resonators. It is a combination of interdigital capacitor of both plate capacitance and fringe capacitance, interdigital resistance, Ohmic losses in substrate, and the acoustic motional behavior of typical Modified Butterworth-Van Dyke (MBVD) model. In the case studies presented in this paper using two-port Y-parameters, the PiBVD model fitted significantly better than the typical MBVD model, strengthening the capability on characterizing both magnitude and phase of either Y11 or Y21. The accurate modelling on two-port Y-parameters makes the PiBVD model beneficial in the characterization of Lamb-wave resonators, providing accurate simulation to Lamb-wave resonators and oscillators.

A 64-channel readout ASIC for nanowire biosensor array with electrical calibration scheme

A 1.8-mW, 18.5-mm2 64-channel current readout ASIC was implemented in 0.18-µm CMOS together with a new calibration scheme for silicon nanowire biosensor arrays. The ASIC consists of 64 channels of dedicated readout and conditioning circuits which incorporate correlated double sampling scheme to reduce the effect of 1/f noise and offset from the analog front-end. The ASIC provides a 10-bit digital output with a sampling rate of 300 S/s whilst achieving a minimum resolution of 7 pArms. A new electrical calibration method was introduced to mitigate the issue of large variations in the nano-scale sensor device parameters and optimize the sensor sensitivity. The experimental results show that the proposed calibration technique improved the sensitivity by 2 to 10 times and reduced the variation between dataset by 9 times.

Temperature Sensor Front End in SOI CMOS Operating up to 250

This brief presents a complementary-to-absolute-temperature voltage and a voltage reference based on the threshold voltage Vth extraction principle. The proposed Vth extraction circuit eliminates the nonlinear temperature-dependent mobility and mobility ratio terms, and it achieves a wide operating temperature range from -25 °C to 250 °C. The threshold-voltage temperature coefficient (TC) mismatch between nMOS and pMOS is compensated by selecting different channel lengths. Fabricated in the 1-μm partially depleted silicon-on-insulator CMOS process, the voltage reference achieves a box model TC of 27 parts per million (ppm) (mean) for an operating temperature range of -25 °C-250 °C and 18.7 ppm (mean) for a range of 25 °C-150 °C. Furthermore, the ratiometric output achieves mean temperature inaccuracy within ±1.8% over a temperature of 275 °C.

A Time-Domain Band-Gap Temperature Sensor in SOI CMOS for High-Temperature Applications

This brief presents a temperature sensor operating over a wide temperature range from 25°C to 225°C for oil well instrumentation applications. The temperature sensor is implemented with a simple time-domain architecture and a mapping function at the digital back end. The mapping function eliminates the need for a band-gap reference, whose temperature coefficient deteriorates the accuracy, particularly for high and wide temperature range of operation. The time-domain implementation results in low power consumption and chip area. With digital calibration at room temperature using a field-programmable gate array, the sensor achieves a worst case inaccuracy of +1.6 °C/ -1.5 °C and consumes only 20-μA current under a 4.5-V supply. The chip is fabricated with a commercial partially depleted silicon-on-insulator CMOS process and occupies a chip area of 0.41 mm2.

A

This letter presents a temperature compensated oscillator for clock generation across a wide temperature range. The proposed technique deploys the characteristics of the constant-biased varactors to nullify the overall oscillators temperature coefficient (TC), thereby reducing the temperature drift effect on the oscillator frequency output. Fabricated on a CMOS technology, the proposed 2.09 GHz-gm-LC oscillator sees a mere frequency drift from -20°C to 120°C. The oscillator consumes 10.9 mW at 1.4 V supply, with phase noise of -119.4 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset. The demonstrated technique is useful for providing accurate clock for a variety of applications, including those operating in harsh environment.

1.5\pm 0.39~{\rm ppm}/^{\circ}{\rm C}

This paper presents a smart temperature sensor operating over a wide temperature range from 25°C-225°C. The proposed smart temperature sensor eliminates the explicit bandgap reference and only requires the ratio of two diode voltages to obtain ratiometric temperature measurements. The temperature sensor is implemented with a simple time-domain architecture, resulting in low power consumption and small chip area. Fabricated in a PDSOI CMOS process, the proposed smart temperature sensor achieves an accuracy of 2°C over 25°C-225°C and consumes only 25-μA current under a 4.5-V supply with a chip area of 0.45mm2.

Temperature-Compensated LC Oscillator Using Constant-Biased Varactors

This paper reports a piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) based micro-machined infrasonic hydrophone. We have conducted a systematic design study for the hydrophone sensor to meet the stringent requirements of underwater applications. The hydrophone sensor was fabricated on a cavity silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate using an in-house CMOS-compatible AlN-on-SOI process platform. A 5 × 5 arrayed hydrophone sensor was characterized thoroughly using an industry-standard hydrophone calibration instrument. The results show that the hydrophone achieved a sound sensitivity of −182.5 dB ± 0.3 dB (ref. to 1 V rms/μPa) and an eligible acceleration sensitivity of only −196.5 dB (ref. to 1 V rms/μg), respectively, a non-linearity of 0.11%, a noise resolution of 57.5 dB referenced to 1 μPa/√Hz within an ultra-low operation bandwidth of 10 Hz∼100 Hz, the highest noise resolution of micro-machined hydrophones reported to date, and better than traditional bulky hydrophones in terms of the same application. The size of the 5 × 5 arrayed hydrophone sensor is about 2 mm × 2 mm.