A CMOS Hall-Effect Sensor for the Characterization and Detection of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Paul Liu; Karl Skucha; Mischa Megens; Bernhard Boser

doi:10.1109/TMAG.2011.2158600

A CMOS Hall-Effect Sensor for the Characterization and Detection of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

IEEE Trans Magn. 2011 Oct;47(10):3449-3451. doi: 10.1109/TMAG.2011.2158600.

Authors

Paul Liu¹, Karl Skucha¹, Mischa Megens¹, Bernhard Boser¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA.

Abstract

A CMOS Hall-effect sensor chip designed for the characterization and detection of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) achieves over three orders of magnitude better temporal resolution than prior solutions based on superconducting quantum interference devices and fluxgate sensors. The sensor relies on wires embedded in the chip to generate a local magnetizing field that is switched OFF rapidly to observe the relaxation field of the MNPs. The CMOS sensor chip, with integrated high-speed readout electronics, occupies 6.25 mm². It can be easily integrated with microfluidics and is suitable for lab-on-a-chip and point-of-care applications.

Keywords: Biosensor; CMOS; Hall-effect devices; magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs); magnetic relaxation.

Grants and funding

U54 ES016115/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States