Detection of weak nano-biosensor signals corrupted by shot noise

Nano-scale biosensors have been identified as the next generation devices for biological and chemical sensing applications and fast sequencing of the human genome. However, detecting targeted molecules is proven to be a challenging task due to weak signal strengths and strong noises. It is therefore vital to understand the noise statistics and develop effective signal detection techniques in order to facilitate the development of reliable devices. In this paper, we build on molecular dynamics simulation results which reveal that the ionic current signals of DNA translocations through solid-state nanopores include both thermal and shot noise, and develop algorithms for effective detection of these signals. Theoretical and simulation results show that the locally most powerful detector has the potential to significantly outperform the classical matched filter.