A Delta-Sigma Approach for Ion Channel Based Biosensor Arrays

Detection of target substances at very low concentration by using molecular stochastic sensing might open new directions for diagnostic tools. This paper presents a compact and low-cost electronic system to record events derived from ligand-gated ion channels embedded in an array of artificial lipid bilayer substrates. In our approach, a Surface Mount Technology electronic system has been designed to be interfaced with a 4x3 array of spots. The currents through each spot of one row are concurrently readout and digitized by three current-mode DeltaSigma (Delta Sigma) analog to digital converters. The output data streams are sent to a digital acquisition card for being recorded and post-processed by a PC.