A low-power neuromorphic CMOS sensor circuit for the implanted biomolecular detections

Amperometric sensor circuit equipped with floating-gate field-effect transistors (FG-FETs) have been extensively used in environmental and biomedical fields for biomolecular detections. Considering the stringent power and dimension requirements of this type of sensors, here we present a low-power biomolecular sensor circuit designed in the concept of neuromorphic circuits. A silicon neuron based sensor circuit is developed to generate a modulated frequency output in response to different current values. The silicon neuron is reconfigured based on a bio-physically inspired neuron model and the proposed circuit achieves nanoampere-level current sensitivity and kilohertz output frequency range. The circuit is designed with a standard 0.13-μm CMOS process. The entire circuit uses only 8 transistors and 4 capacitors and consumes only 2.2 μW power with a 1.1 V supply. The low power dissipation and high area-efficient features of the proposed amperometric sensor circuit make it very suitable for the implanted biomolecular detections.