Integrated multi-electrode fluidic nitric-oxide sensor and VLSI potentiostat array

Nitric oxide (NO) serves as an important intercellular messenger in the human body, and is mechanistically involved in vascular disease, stroke, chronic hear failure, and epilepsy. We present a multi-electrode NO measurement sensor with integrated microfluidics. An array of carbon-based electrodes detect the spatial and temporal diffusion profile of NO in a PDMS laminar fluidic channel. The array interfaces to a multichannel potentiostatic VLSI system recording the amperometric output in real time, with five orders of magnitude in dynamic range over four scales down to hundreds of picoamperes. The integrated sensor-fluidic-VLSI system is expected to serve as a powerful tool to study the diffusion mechanism of NO under different fluid flow paradigms.