A fully electronic label-free DNA sensor chip

This paper presents a microfabricated DNA chip for fully electronic, label-free DNA recognition, based on capacitance measurements. The chip has been fabricated in 0.5-mu m CMOS technology and it features an array of individually addressable sensing sites consisting of pairs of gold electrodes and addressing logic. Read-out circuitry is built externally using standard components to provide increased experimental flexibility. The chip has been electrically characterized and tested with various solutions containing DNA samples. Significant capacitance variations due to DNA hybridization have been measured, thus showing that the approach represents a viable solution for a single chip DNA sensor array.