Wide Dynamic Range, Highly Accurate, Low Power CMOS Potentiostat for Electrochemical Sensing Applications

Diabetes is a global epidemic that threatens the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of people. The first step in patient treatment is to maintain healthy glucose levels, requiring continuous and accurate monitoring. Modern glucose monitoring systems use electrochemical methods that are invasive, painful and time-consuming and often results in dangerous fluctuations in glucose levels going undetected. Recent developments in biomedical sensors and CMOS integrated circuit technologies have led to the realization of non-invasive and minimally invasive glucose monitoring systems that overcome these limitations and may be implantable. An implantable glucose sensor scheme can also be modified to detect and quantify other physiological factors such as lactate, oxygen, and pH. A potentiostat is an integral part of a glucose sensor that controls the potential difference between the two electrodes and acquires sensor signals for the signal processing unit that collects and processes the data to transmit to a wireless device. A number of potentiostat circuits have been introduced for glucose monitoring devices but many suffer poor accuracy and improved measurement sensitivity is needed. This work focuses on addressing the issues in existing potentiostat configurations and develops a low power, compact potentiostat with wide dynamic range and high accuracy that can not only be used for glucose monitoring systems but also for other physiological factors and electrochemical sensing applications with considerable improvements in sensitivity and dynamic range to meet future needs.