Patent EA-002902-B1 (EA)
Title: Techniques and systems for analyte detection
Inventor: GOODMAN RODNEY M
IPC: G01N27/12
Filed: 1998-08-07
Abstract: 1. An integrated circuit comprising: a plurality of sensor sites formed on the integrated circuit, wherein a sensor material is constrained at the sensor site and has regions of a nonconductive organic material and a conductive material, and in the presence of an analyte, the sensor material has measurable changes in an electrical property; and electrical terminals formed to couple to the sensor material at the sensor sites, wherein the electrical terminals transmit electrical signals to evaluate the change in the electrical property of the sensor material wherein the sensor material site is a sensor well. 2. The integrated circuit of Claim 1 wherein the electrical property comprises resistance. 3. The integrated circuit of Claim 1 wherein the electrical property comprises capacitance. 4. The integrated circuit of Claim 1 wherein the electrical property comprises inductance. 5. The integrated circuit of Claim 1 wherein the nonconductive organic material is a polymer. 6. The integrated circuit of Claim 1 wherein the conductive material is selected from the group consisting of carbon black, conducting organic conductors, metals, metal colloids, and inorganic conductors. 7. The integrated circuit of Claim 1 wherein the sensor material at a first sensor site has a different composition from the sensor material at a second sensor site. 8. The integrated circuit of Claim 1 wherein the sensor material at one of sensor sites is different from the sensor material at any other sensor sites. 9. The integrated circuit of Claim 1 further comprising a plurality of transistors formed on the integrated circuit and coupled to the electrical terminals. 10. An electronic system for olfaction comprising an integrated circuit as recited in Claim 1. 11. A sensor cell formed on an integrated circuit comprising a sensor site, wherein a sensor material is constrained at the sensor site and an electrical property of the sensor material changes in the presence of an analyte; and electronic devices coupled to the sensor material to enable measurement of changes in the electrical property of the sensor material wherein the sensor material site is a sensor well and said electronic devices are formed beneath the sensor site. 12. The sensor cell of Claim 11 wherein the electronic devices include circuitry to determine change in resistance of the sensor material relative to a baseline resistance of the sensor material. 13. An integrated circuit comprising a plurality of sensor sites as recited in Claim 11. 14. A method of detecting analytes comprising: using the integral circuit comprising a plurality of sensors, wherein each sensor has a well; using a plurality of sensor materials constrained by a plurality of sensors, wherein the material of each sensor is different from the material of other sensors and has measurable changes in an electrical property and in the presence of the analyte, wherein comprising regions of a nonconductive organic material and a conductive material; using electrical terminals formed to couple to the sensor material at the sensor sites, wherein the electrical terminals transmit electrical signals to evaluate the change in the electrical property of the sensor material; initializing a plurality of diverse sensors; presenting an analyte to the plurality of diverse sensors; processing electrical signals from the plurality of diverse sensors; and using the electrical signals identifying the analyte. 15. An integrated circuit comprising: an array of polymeric sensors for detecting chemical analytes, each polymeric sensor having a first and second output terminal and each sensor is coupled to an adjacent sensor through a resistive element; and a plurality of adaptive electronic circuits, each circuit associated with one of the sensors and coupled to the first and second output terminals of the associated sensor, and a row multiplexer to select a row in the array of polymer sensors, a column multiplexer to select a column in the array of polymer sensors. 16. The integrated circuit of Claim 15 wherein each adaptive electronic circuit communicates to other adaptive electronic circuits. 17. The integrated circuit of Claim 15 wherein the electronics generates a change signal to indicate changed data for a respective sensor, and the integrated circuit further comprises: a multiplexer circuit to determine and select a location of a sensor in the array having changed data. 18. The integrated circuit of Claim 15 wherein further comprises an idle sensor row adjacent to each peripheral array row, and an idle sensor column adjacent to each peripheral array column. 19. A method of forming a sensor structure comprising: forming a plurality of layers on a silicon substrate; wherein said plurality of layers comprise polysilicon, metal, and oxide layers; creating a well in the plurality of layers; and depositing sensor material in the well. 20. A semiconductor structure comprising: a well filled with a sensor material, wherein a first conductor formed along a first side of the well contacts the sensor material and a second conductor formed along a second side of the well contacts the sensor material, and the first side is opposite the second side. 21. The semiconductor structure of Claim 20 wherein each side is 200 microns in length. 22. A method of detecting analytes comprising: using the integral circuit comprising a plurality of sensors, wherein each sensor has a well; using a plurality of sensor materials constrained by a plurality of sensors, wherein the material of each sensor is different from the material of other sensors and has measurable changes in an electrical property and in the presence of the analyte, wherein comprising regions of a nonconductive organic material and a conductive material; using electrical terminals formed to couple to the sensor material at the sensor sites, wherein the electrical terminals transmit electrical signals to evaluate the change in the electrical property of the sensor material; exposing a plurality of vapor sensors to detect an analyte, each sensor having a different response characteristic; generating electrical signals indicative of changes in the sensors in response to the chemical analyte; and using the electrical signals to identify the chemical analyte. 23. A method of forming an electronic olfaction device comprising: forming a plurality of sensor sites on a semiconductor substrate; applying a sensor material at the sensor sites, wherein the sensor material at each of the sensor sites comprises a different composition; and forming electronic semiconductor devices beneath the plurality of sensor sites and on the semiconductor substrate, wherein the electronic semiconductor devices comprise transistors. 24. The method of Claim 23 wherein the sensor material comprises a region of a nonconductive organic polymer and a conductive material. 25. The method of Claim 23 wherein the material comprises a conductive material selected from the group consisting of carbon black, conducting organic conductors, metals, metal colloids, and inorganic conductors. 26. The method of Claim 23 further comprising forming electronic semiconductor devices on the semiconductor substrate. 27. The method of Claim 23 wherein applying the sensor material comprises placing a film of sensor material on a surface of the semiconductor substrate. 28. A method of fabricating an integrated circuit comprising: providing a substrate; forming semiconductor devices on the substrate, wherein the semiconductor devices are interconnected using a conductor; forming a first insulator layer above the semiconductor devices; forming a contact to the conductor; planarizing the first insulator layer having the contact; and depositing a polymer material on the first insulator layer to electrically couple to the conductor. 29. The method of Claim 28 further comprising covering the contact with a noble metal coating. 30. The method of Claim 28 further comprising forming an enclosure for the polymer material using a second insulator layer. 31. The method of Claim 28 wherein the polymer material comprises regions of a nonconductive organic material and a conductive material. 32. The method of Claim 28 wherein the planarizing the first insulator layer comprises chemical-mechanical polishing. 33. The method of Claim 28 further comprising planarizing the polymer material. 34. The method of Claim 28 further comprising planarizing the polymer material using chemical-mechanical polishing. 35. An integrated circuit comprising: a material comprising regions of a nonconductive organic material and a conductive material, wherein the material is formed on a planarized surface, wherein the polymer material is from about 0.10 microns to about 1 micron thick; and a plurality of contacts to measure an electrical property of the material. 36. The integrated circuit of Claim 35 wherein the resistance of the material changes in the presence of different analytes. 37. An integrated circuit comprising: a plurality of chemiresistor sensors formed on a planarized first insulator layer on a substrate; and a plurality of contacts to detect an electrical property of each sensor. 38. The integrated circuit of Claim 37 wherein each of the chemiresistor sensors are separated from other chemiresistor sensors using a second material. 39. The integrated circuit of Claim 38 wherein the second material is formed using a high impedance film. 40. A method of forming a structure comprising: forming a plurality of electrodes on a relatively planar surface; forming a hurdle structure on the surface, the hurdle structure extending perpendicular to the surface and positioned between the electrodes; and depositing a film to cover the hurdle structure and the electrodes. 41. The method of Claim 40 wherein a thickness of the film is determined by the surface tension of the film. 42. The method of Claim 40 wherein the hurdle structure is formed using micromachining techniques. 43. Th