Biosensor research has been addressed as an interested field recently. Within different kinds of developed biosensing technologies, field-effect transistor (FET) based biosensors stand out due to their attractive features, such as ultra-sensitivity detection, mass-production capability, and low-cost manufacturing. To promote understandings of the FET based biosensing technology, in this review, its sensing mechanism is introduced, as well as major FET-based biosensing devices: ion sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET), silicon nanowire, organic FET, graphene FET, and compound-semiconductor FET. In addition to FET-based biosensing devices, clinical applications, such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancers, diabetes, HIV, and DNA sequence, are also reviewed. In the end, several critical challenges of FET-based biosensing technology are discussed to envision next steps in healthcare technologies.

This article reviews optical biosensors and their integration with microfluidic channels. The integrated biosensors have the advantages of higher accuracy and sensitivity because they can simultaneously monitor two or more parameters. They can further incorporate many functionalities such as electrical control and signal readout monolithically in a single semiconductor chip, making them ideal candidates for point-of-care testing. In this article, we discuss the applications by specifically looking into point-of-care testing (POCT) using integrated optical sensors. The requirement and future perspective of integrated optical biosensors for POC is addressed.

A highly adaptive multi-sensor SoC comprising four integrated on-chip sensors and a smart wireless acquisition system is realized in standard CMOS process for the first time. To intelligently process different types (C, R, I, and V) of sensor signals, a linear (R-square is 0.999) and reconfigurable sensor readout is proposed based on switched-capacitor circuit technology. In addition, a dual-input energy harvesting interface with conversion efficiency of 73% is also integrated to pick up light energy and RF power, which potentiates long-term use without battery replacement. The entire SoC occupies die area of 11.25 mm 2 and consumes only 942.9 μW. Experimental results show that four physiological parameters (temperature, glucose and protein concentration, and pH value) can be simultaneously monitored using this chip. This system can be seen as a universal sensor platform. Different types of sensors can be easily integrated into it for convenient use, which dramatically reduces time consuming of building a new sensor system.