A CMOS Lab-on-a-Chip for Fully Automated Telomerase Activity Detection

This paper presents a CMOS Lab-on-a-chip capable of implementing all the steps to detect the rate of activity of enzyme telomerase. Telomerase expression is a marker of malignity in tumoral cells and its evaluation can be exploited for early diagnosis of many types of cancer cells. In order to detect the enzyme, a CMOS device integrating 1024 biosensors able to measure kinetics of DNA replication and telomerase reaction was developed. Since the activation of telomerase occurs in a very precise temperature range, the chip includes integrated temperature sensors and heaters to precisely set the working temperature. The device was designed in a standard 0.18 mu m CMOS process from XFAB and includes A/D conversion and a complete digital interface, all integrated within a single chip. Post-layout simulations are provided.