Biological Agent Sensing Integrated Circuit (BASIC): A New Complementary Metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) Magnetic Biosensor System

Fast and accurate diagnosis is always in demand by modern medical professionals and in the area of national defense. At present, limitations of testing speed, sample conditions, and levels of precision exist under current technologies, which are usually slow and involve testing the specimen under laboratory conditions. Typically, these methods also involve several biochemical processing steps and subsequent detection of low energy luminescence or electrical changes, all of which reduce the speed of the test as well as limit the precision. In order to solve these problems and improve the sensing performance, this project proposes an innovative CMOS magnetic biological sensor system for rapidly testing the presence of potential pathogens and bioterrorism agents (zoonotic microorganisms) both in specimens and especially in the environment. The sensor uses an electromagnetic detection mechanism to measure changes in the number of microorganisms--tagged by iron nanoparticles--that are placed on the surface of an integrated circuit (IC) chip. Measured magnetic effects are transformed into electronic signals that count the number and type of organisms present. This biosensor introduces a novel design of a conical-shaped inductor, which achieves ultra-accuracy of sensing biological pathogens. The whole system is integrated on a single chip based on the fabrication process of IBM 180 nm (CMOS_IBM_7RF), which makes the sensor small-sized, portable, high speed, and low cost. The results of designing, simulating, and fabricating the sensor are reported in this dissertation.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Zheng, Yi

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Tront, Joseph G.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Scales, Wayne A.
• Ha, Dong S.
• Sriranganathan, Nammalwar
• Schaumont, Patrick R.

• Biohazard
• Antibody and antigen
• Pathogen
• Iron nanoparticle
• CMOS
• Integrated circuit
• Conical-shaped inductor
• Uniform magnetic field
• Magnetic sensor
• LC oscillator
• Frequency counter
• Prototype
• Antenna effect

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:2990

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/48892