An 8 GHz CMOS Near Field Bio-sensor Array for Imaging Spatial
Permittivity Distribution of Biomaterials
S.Guha*, F.Uamal, K.Schmalz, Ch.Wenger and e.Meliani
IHP, 1m Technologie Park 25, D-15236 Frankfurt(oder), Germany
*guha@ihp-microelectronics.com
Abstract - In this paper a CMOS biosensor array operating
around 8 GHz is presented, for characterizing biomaterials by
imaging the spatial distribution of permittivity. The sensor is
fabricated in standard 250 nm SiGe BiCMOS process. The
sensor operation is based on the frequency shift of cross-coupled
oscillator circuit due to capacitance change of the core LC tank.
Non-uniform four finger interdigitated capacitor is used as the
sensor unit. A four element sensor array system is used in this
work for the proof of concept of spatial dielectric imaging.
Measured sensitivity is observed to be 22 MHz per unit
permittivity change. After first sensitivity tests, the
discrimination capability of the array is shown by further testing
the array with biomaterials of different permittivity on different
sensor units, showing unique frequency shift for individual
sensors.
Index Terms - Dielectric permittivity, sensor array, imaging,
biosensor, biomaterial
I. INTRODUCTION
Dielectric characterization of biomaterials has been
effectively used for decades for analysis of biological test
samples. Properties of cells and tissues [1]-[3], biological cell
suspension analysis [4], are few among many biomaterials that
are characterized based on their dielectric properties.
However, there is an ever increasing need for spatially
localized characterization of biomaterials for effective analysis
of test samples, for example a cancerous tissue. Thus spatial
imaging of permittivity for an area of a biological test sample
would provide an accurate understanding of the properties of
the test sample. This work is dedicated towards establishing a
frequency shift biosensor array for accurate spatial dielectric
imaging of a given area of a biological test sample. In
addition, sensor arrays allow characterization of biomaterials
without need of precise positioning of the sensor or of the
biological sample, as a complete area will be scanned. This
can be used to embed functionalities such as tracking which
increase the reliability of such sensors.
Although most of the dielectric characterization is often
performed at frequency ranges of MHz and higher KHz, they
are often faced with problems of low frequency dispersion
effects [5]-[7]. Recently efforts have been made to perform
dielectric characterization of biological cell suspensions at
GHz ranges utilizing the y dispersion of water in such
suspensions [8], [4]. In this work the sensor system is operated
at a frequency range of 8 GHz (far from characteristic
frequency of water, 17 GHz) for dielectric imaging of spatial
permIttIvIty distribution. This choice of frequency helps to
nullify the low frequency dispersion mechanisms and also
helps in using the content of water for characterization.
The frequency shift sensor approach makes the sensor
rd
system an all electrical label free sensor, also termed as 3
generation sensors requiring no labeling, no incubation time,
and no reference electrodes. In this work interdigitated
capacitor (lDC) is used as the sensor unit, whose capacitance
spatial is the function of the permittivity of the material placed on top
of it. The IDC coupled with a pair of inductors constitute the
resonator of a cross-coupled oscillator: the resonant frequency
of the oscillator is a function of the capacitance of the IDe.
Thus the permittivity data is read out as the resonant
frequency of the oscillator. An array of IDCs would provide
the spatial dielectric information of the biological test sample.
The paper is organized as follows: Sec. II gives a detailed
description of the sensor concept while Sec. III presents the
design of the oscillator and the sensor array. Experimental
results are presented and discussed in Sec. IV and finally, Sec.
V gives conclusions.
II. SENSOR DESIGN
Interdigitated capacitor (IDC) is used as the sensor for
individual array unit. IDCs can be analyzed using the
microstrip line concept based on conformal mapping
technique [9]. In this work non-uniform four finger IDC is
used. The capacitance of the IDC is a function of the geometry
of the IDC structure and the material permittivity placed on
top of it. The IDC is referred as non-uniform as the width of
the finger is unequal to the spacing between the fingers. In this
work the width(w) of the IDC fingers is lO !Jm and the
spacing (s) is 20 !Jm as shown in fig.1 (a). Length (L) is 50
!Jm.
The electric field distribution shown in fig. 1(b), shows the
field penetrating both in the material undert test (MUT) and
the substrate. If the substrate permittivity is much higher than
the permittivity of the material the electric field tends to
penetrate into the substrate more, as compared to the MUT. In
this work the sensor is placed on top most metal layer of a
standard BiCMOS process, thus making the Si02 dielectric of
the stack dominant as the substrate for the IDe. Biomaterials
often have a higher permittivity compared to Si02 permittivity
of 4.2, thus making the electric field lines more dominant in
the material. The capacitance is 25 fF in the frequency range
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of interest, 8 GHz, and is far away from the self resonating transistors. Individual sensor units were activated by applying
frequency of the IDC structure which is simulated to be a 0 V bias to the corresponding pmos transistors. The primary
beyond 50 GHz. advantage of this approach is to avoid unwanted locking of the
oscillators at a common frequency if operated in parallel.
The parasitic capacitances of the cross coupled transistors
(a) Ml and M2 and the buffer transistors M3and M4 load the IDC
capacitance as well and hence reduce the resonant frequency
of the oscillator. The resonant frequency (approximated) of
the oscillator is given as

(1)
O x id e where Cgs and Cbuff are the gate to source parasitic
capacitances of the cross coupled transistors and the buffer
respectively, shown in fig. 3(a). Thus the fraction of the
Silicon substrate sensing capacitance CideiCtotal determines the effective use of
the sensor.

Vdd
Fig.! (a) Interdigitated capacitor structure with material under
...... ....•. Buffer
test (b) Electric field distribution of IDC

The capacitance of the IDC would change with materials of

different permittivity placed on top of it. Fig. 2 shows the
simulated variation of capacitance of the IDC sensor with
permittivity of MUT.

65 .------.
60

LL 55
....
- 50
Q)
(,) 45 (b) Power Supply
s::::
� 40
� 35
g. 30
U 25
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Permittivity 0
Fig.2 Variation of capacitance ofIDC with permittivity

�===����.I---,L:J
Switch
III. OSCTLLATOR DESIGN control

The IDC coupled with a pair of inductors constitute the

complete resonator which is further used in a CMOS cross­
coupled oscillator as shown in fig. 3(a) to form one sensor
unit. Fig. 3(b) shows the architecture of switched four element
sensor array system: a common current source is used for all Fig.3 (a) Schematic of individual sensor unit (b) Four unit switched
the oscillators and is connected to one oscillator at a given sensor array.
point of time with the switches shown in the figure. In this
work pmos switches were used. The switches were turned off
with the bias voltage of 2.5 V applied to the gates of the pmos

978-1-4799-3869-8/14/$31.00 ©2014 Crown

However the sensitivity of the sensor defined by change of
frequency per unit change of pennittivity and is given by the After these first experiments, the sensor array was further used
term to map different materials on top of different cells of the
S = iJf/iJE (2) sensor array. The results are summarized in table 1

where /:'c, is the change in pennittivity. In this work four TABLE I

such sensor units have been used for spatial imaging of the CASES OF ARRAY MEASUREMENT

dielectric distribution of the bio material. The architecture can

be further extended to multi-dimensional array for Case Senosrl Sensor 2 Sensor 3 Sensor 4
characterizing a larger area of the test sample of the 1 Glue Air Air Air
biomaterial. 8.137 GHz 8.28 GHz 7.79 GHz 7.8 GHz
2 Glue Glue Air Air
8.137 GHz 8.137 GHz 7.79 GHz 7.794
IV. MEASUREMENT RESULTS
GHz
The sensors are operated individually using switches as 3 Glue Honey Air Honey
mentioned previously. The chip micrograph shown in fig. 4 8.132 GHz 8.03 GHz 7.78 GHz 7.6 GHz
shows the position of the four sensors. Sensors 1 and 2 operate
at the same frequency of 8.28 GHz and sensor 3 and 4 operate 4 Glue Honey Glue Honey
at 7.8 GHz with power levels of -6 dBm. Sensitivity of 8.13 GHz 8.03GHz 7.74 GHz 7.6 GHz
approximately 22 MHz per unit pennittivity change is
observed from both measurement and simulation results.

Casel I
£8,5
�
� 8
:::J
0"
Q)
� 7,5

G 8,5
N

Case2

Fig. 4. Chip Micrograph of four element sensor array

Three different materials (glue, honey, honey + water) have

been used to test the sensors. In a first step, each of these Case3
materials was put on all sensors simultaneously (Fig. 5).

8.5
N -- Sensor 1 and 2 Measured
::I: -*- Sensor 3 and 4 Measured

(!) -4-- Sensor 1 and 2 simulated

-8.0 --T- Sensor 3 and 4 simulated
Sl
>-
(.)
s:::
Q)
Case4 � 8.5

g. 7.5 j
\.!)
8

Q) 7.5
...
LL 7
...
s::: 7.0
cu
s:::
0
!IJ
Q) 6.5
I:t: 0 ,, 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 4D
: Fig. 6. Imaging of dielectric distribution as tabulated in table I;

I
,,
, i Permittivity 0 Green:glue, Orange:honey,Blue:air
Air Glue Honey Honey � Water

Fig. 5. Simulated and measured fTequency shift of sensors

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 The imaging of the dielectric distribution is shown in fig. 6. It
is seen from the measurement results, that for a given sensor [I]
unit, the influence of materials on top of neighboring sensors
is kept low which demonstrates the spatial discrimination
capability of the system. This can be seen in the example case
[2]
where the placement of honey on Sensor 1 does not influence
the resonant frequency of neighboring Sensor 3. Honey also
being a viscous fluid, does not spread over the neighboring
[3]
sensors; this enables an effective spatial discrimination. At the
same time, sufficient permittivity discrimination was achieved
(clear differentiation between honey, glue and air): the [4]
sensitivity of each sensor was not altered because of presence
of materials on top of neighboring units. As mentioned above,
only viscous fluids were used in the experiments. Case 4 of [5]
the experiment shown in table 1, establishes the concept of
imaging of a given area of biomaterial, based on dielectric
distribution. [6]
[7]
V. CONCLUSION
In this work it was shown that a frequency shift sensor [8]
could be effectively used for near field imaging of spatial
dielectric distribution. Sensors operating at the frequency
range around 8 GHz were demonstrated and a four unit array
was shown. A switched sensor operating mechanism was [9]
demonstrated in this work. The sensors had unique shift in
their resonant frequency based on the different materials
placed on top of them simultaneously. A sensitivity of 22
MHz per unit permittivity was achieved from measurements
and simulation. It was also shown with several experiment
combinations that a material placed on top of one of the
sensors had a negligible influence on the operation of
neighboring sensors. Such a sensor system can be used for
characterizing tissues or as a generic sensor in cytometric
applications, capable of counting, tracking and characterizing
different cell types without any additional trapping techniques.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work has been funded by German BMBF under the
project Plaque CharM with grant no: 16M3198A. The authors
would like to thank the Technology department of IHP, for
fabrication of the chip. The authors would also like to thank
Mr. Johannes Borngraeber for helping with the measurements.
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