A 128 × 128 Current-Mode Ultra-High Frame Rate ISFET Array With In-Pixel Calibration for Real-Time Ion Imaging

An ultra-high frame rate and high spatial resolution ion-sensing Lab-on-Chip platform using a 128 × 128 CMOS ISFET array is presented. Current mode operation is employed to facilitate high-speed operation, with the ISFET sensors biased in the triode region to provide a linear response. Sensing pixels include a reset switch to allow in-pixel calibration for non-idealities such as offset, trapped charge and drift by periodically resetting the floating gate of the ISFET sensor. Current mode row-parallel signal processing is applied throughout the readout pipeline including auto-zeroing circuits for the removal of fixed pattern noise. The 128 readout signals are multiplexed to eight high-sample-rate on-chip current mode ADCs followed by an off-chip PCIe-based readout system on a FPGA with a latency of 0.15 s. Designed in a 0.35 μm CMOS process, the complete system-on-chip occupies an area of 2.6 × 2.2 mm
²
with a pixel size of 18 × 12.5 μm
²
and the whole system achieves a frame rate of 3000 fps which is the highest reported in the literature for ISFET arrays. The platform is demonstrated in the application of real-time ion-imaging through the high-speed visualization of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) diffusion in water at 60 fps on screen in addition to slow-motion playback of ion-dynamics recorded at 3000 fps.