A 40 GHz fully integrated circuit with a vector network analyzer and a coplanar-line-based detection area for circulating tumor cell analysis using 65 nm CMOS technology

Abstract

Abstract A 40-GHz fully integrated CMOS-based circuit for circulating tumor cells (CTC) analysis, consisting of an on-chip vector network analyzer (VNA) and a highly sensitive coplanar-line-based detection area is presented in this paper. In this work, we introduce a fully integrated architecture that eliminates unwanted parasitic effects. The proposed analyzer was designed using 65 nm CMOS technology, and SPICE and MWS simulations were used to validate its operation. The simulation confirmed that the proposed circuit can measure S -parameter shifts resulting from the addition of various types of tumor cells to the detection area, the data of which are provided in a previous study: the | S 21 | values for HepG2, A549, and HEC-1-A cells are −0.683, −0.580, and −0.623 dB, respectively. Additionally, the measurement demonstrated an S -parameters reduction of −25.7% when a silicone resin was put on the circuit. Hence, the proposed system is expected to contribute to cancer diagnosis.