Design and Function Principle of a Large Scale Sensor Array for the Bi-Directional Coupling to Electrogenic Cells

Abstract

N- and p-type floating gate field-effect transistor (FG-FET) arrays for the detection of extracellular signals from electrogenic cells were fabricated in a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. Additional passivation layers protected the transistor gates from the electrolyte solution. We present recordings acquired simultaneously with an n- and p-type FG-FET from one single HEK293 cell and show how the floating gate can be used to capacitively stimulate a cell positioned on the active device. In a further step a high density FG-FET array was designed and fabricated in a standard 0.5 mum process. The chip contains 4096 pixels that can act as both sensor and actuator.