EVENT-DRIVEN COULTER COUNTER IC FOR HIGH THROUGHPUT PARTICLE COUNTING

摘要

A particle occurrence sensing circuit for microfluidic particle sensing includes a set of particle event indicators, each of which includes: a Coulter counter having a sensing electrode exposable to a fluid within a microfluidic channel and configured for providing a particle sensing signal; an input stage configured for providing an extracted particle sensing signal; and a particle event detector configured for providing a set of particle event occurrence signals. Each of the set of particle event occurrence signals indicates a sensed occurrence of a particle greater than or equal to a given reference particle size during fluid flow through the microfluidic channel to which the sensing electrode is exposed. The particle event detector includes a successive approximation (SA) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured for generating a plurality of reference particle size threshold values and successively comparing the extracted particle sensing signal amplitude with reference particle size threshold values.

主权项

1. A circuit for sensing distinct occurrences of particles of one or more sizes or particles falling within one or more particle size ranges during flow of at least one fluid in which particles are expected to exist within a set of microfluidic channels, the circuit including a set of particle event indicators, each of the particle event indicators comprising:
a Coulter counter comprising a sensing electrode exposable to a fluid carried within a distinct microfluidic channel of the set of microfluidic channels and configured for providing a particle sensing signal; an input stage configured for receiving the particle sensing signal and providing an extracted particle sensing signal having an amplitude; and a particle event detector configured for receiving the extracted particle sensing signal and providing a set of particle event occurrence signals based upon the extracted particle sensing signal amplitude,
wherein each of the set of particle event occurrence signals indicates a sensed occurrence of a particle greater than or equal to a given reference particle size during fluid flow through the microfluidic channel to which the sensing electrode is exposed, andwherein the particle event detector comprises a successive approximation (SA) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured for generating a plurality of reference particle size threshold values and successively comparing the extracted particle sensing signal amplitude with reference particle size threshold values.