On-Chip versus Off-Chip—Nanosensor Readout Strategies

Abstract
Classic sensors with a rugged design offer a signal level that is at least high enough to be passed over to a hybrid integrated readout circuit, for example, by wire bonding. In contrast, emerging nanosensors are often merely emitting signals in the pico-ampere regime. However, the outperforming response sensitivity of these sensors is the weak point in the design. While passing over the signal to the outer world, the signal is superimposed by noise picked up from the wiring. Therefore, different strategies for an appropriate signal processing are presented in this paper.