Floating-gate capacitance sensor array for cell viability monitoring

Abstract

This paper describes a new design for a capacitance sensor array to monitor cell viability that uses floating gate compensation techniques to mitigate device mismatch. The measurement is carried out using sensor evaluation modules that employ a charge based capacitance measurement technique to quantify differential capacitance at the sensor pixel elements. Previous results from compensated structures and new data collected from in-vitro cell culture on the surface of an uncompensated array were used to inform the design of a new array. We examine array level architectural tradeoffs and sensing electrode configurations in order to design a high density sensor array with minimal sources of variability.