A High‐Bandwidth, Low‐Noise Front‐End Readout Integrated Chip for Nanopore

ABSTRACT Nanopore sequencing, a third‐generation sequencing technology, widely uses biological nanopores due to their high reproducibility. To effectively capture signals generated as target molecules pass through the nanopores, the readout circuit should be characterized with high bandwidth, high gain, low noise, and high throughput. However, parasitic capacitance limits the circuit stability and bandwidth. This paper presents a nanopore front‐end readout integrated chip, composed of a nanopore microelectrode chip and analog front‐end chips, adopting heterogeneous packaging technology and on‐chip circuit to minimize parasitic capacitance. The nanopore microelectrode chip is manufactured by micromanufacturing technology, where nanopores can be incorporated on it. The analog front‐end chips adopt resistive feedback trans‐impedance amplifiers and are taped out in 0.18‐ m CMOS. Ultimately, a 16‐channel nanopore front‐end readout integrated chip is applied for biological nanopore sensing. After biological nanopores are incorporated, each channel of the nanopore front‐end readout integrated chip has bandwidth exceeding 11 kHz and equivalent input noise less than 3 pA. These characteristics enable effective detection of signals generated by target analytes passing through the biological nanopores.