A low-power Read-Out Circuit and low-cost assembly of nanosensors onto a 0.13 μm CMOS Micro-for-Nano chip

This paper describes the Micro-for-Nano (M4N) approach as effective solution to overcome challenges related to the nanomaterial assembly with electrodes, the low-noise measurement of nanomaterial electrical properties and the CMOS design of the nanosensor electronic interface. This paper presents both the fabrication process of a nanodevice onto the IC surface using Dielectrophoresis (DEP) and the Read-Out Circuit (ROC) used for the inspection of the electrical properties of nanowires (NW). The ROC includes a Time-over-Threshold circuit which has been characterized stand-alone. It shows maximum measurement error of 0.8% with a maximum linearity error below 1.86% in the range 300kΩ-100MΩ. The ROC occupies 0.0067 mm² silicon area and simulation data shows that the maximum power consumption is 8.9μW at 1.2 V. The paper presents first measurement results obtained on fabricated prototype chips based on ZnO-NW.