IC–MEMS Co-Fabrication: Enabling smart–seamless microsystem integration for emerging biomedical technologies

The development of personalized healthcare solutions is a complex and multifaceted challenge that requires synergistic collaboration and cross-fertilization between multiple disciplines, including microelectronics, nanotechnology, materials science, and biotechnology. As numerous biomedical applications necessitate the precise regulation and...

Monolithic integration of a smart temperature sensor on a modular silicon-based organ-on-a-chip device

One of the many applications of organ-on-a-chip (OOC) technology is the study of biological processes in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) during pharmacological drug screening. It is of paramount importance to construct OOCs equipped with highly compact in situ sensors that can accurately monitor, in real time, the extracellular...

Design of a Multi-Functional Smart Optrode for Electrophysiology and Optogenetics

Optogenetics is a neuromodulation method that holds great potential for the realization of advanced neuroprostheses due to its precise spatial-temporal control of neuronal activity [1]. The development of novel optogenetic implants (optrodes) may open new doors to investigate complex brain circuitry and chronical brain disorders, such as...

Design and Custom Fabrication of a Smart Temperature Sensor for an Organ-on-a-chip Platform

Incubators in cell cultures are used to grow and maintain cells under optimal temperature alongside other key variables, such as pH, humidity, atmospheric conditions etc. As enzymatic activity and protein synthesis proceed optimally at 37.5 oC, a temperature rise can cause protein denaturation, whereas a drop in temperature can slow down...

Co-integration of flip-tip patch clamp and microelectrode arrays for in-vitro recording of electrical acvity of cardiac cells

Active implantable medical devices have been developed for diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of large variety of neural disorders. Since the mechanical properties of these devices need to be matched to the tissue, soft materials, such as polymers are often preferred as a substrate. 1 Parylene is a good candidate, as it is highly biocompatible...

Monolithic Integration of an In-situ Smart Sensor in a Silicon-based Organ-on-a-chip Platform for Monitoring the Temperature of Stem Cell Culture

This research reports on the design and co-fabrication of a time-mode signal-processing in situ temperature sensor customized for the Cytostrech, an organ-on-a-chip (OOC) device. The circuit was fabricated using an in-house integrated circuit technology (BiCMOS7) that requires only seven lithographic steps to fabricate npn and MOS devices, and...

Co-integration of flip-tip patch clamp and microelectrode arrays for in-vitro recording of electrical acvity of heart cells

The patch clamp has been widely considered the gold standard to measure intracellular ionic activity of single cells [1]. However, patch clamping is a laborious method and suffers from low throughput. To mitigate the disadvantages of patch clamping, planar patch clamp (PPC) chips with higher throughput have been recently introduced [2-3]. Yet...

Design and Custom Fabrication of a Smart Temperature Sensor for an Organ-on-a-chip Platform

This paper reports on the design and fabrication of a time-mode signal-processing in situ temperature sensor customized for an organ-on-a-chip (OOC) application. The circuit was fabricated using an in-house integrated circuit (IC) technology that requires only seven lithographic steps and is compatible with MEMS fabrication process. The...

MEMS-Electronics Integration: A Smart Temperature Sensor for an Organ-on-a-chip Platform