Cell-impedance sensors
First Claim
1. An apparatus for measuring cell-electrode impedance in biological cells, comprising:
- a cell-culture vessel comprising electrodes structured in an interdigitated array of electrode branch elements, the cell-culture vessel operable to hold a cell-culture medium having biological cells attachable to the electrodes and the electrode branch elements arranged to be staggered with a non-uniform distance between each of the electrode branch elements; and
circuitry electrically coupled to the electrodes and comprising a detection resistor and a stimulator to apply an alternating current (AC) signal at different frequencies to the electrodes and configured to control a frequency range of the AC signal to be between a low frequency and a high frequency;
whereinthe electrodes have an equivalent electrical circuit that is dominated by interface capacitance at the low frequency and is dominated by spreading resistance at the high frequency.
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Abstract
Systems, apparatus and methods for designing and operating a cell-electrode impedance sensor to detect chemical and biological samples, including biological cells. In one implementation, a method of designing a cell-electrode impedance sensor includes determining a cell free cell-electrode impedance and a cell covered cell-electrode impedance based on a design model for the cell-electrode impedance sensor, wherein the design model is based on one or more factors, the factors including properties and elements of a cell-electrode impedance measurement system, using the cell free cell-electrode impedance and the cell covered cell-electrode impedance to obtain a sensor sensitivity of the cell-electrode impedance measurement system, and choosing one or more design parameters of the cell-electrode impedance sensor in the cell-electrode impedance measurement system to maximize the sensor sensitivity.
31 Citations
17 Claims
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1. An apparatus for measuring cell-electrode impedance in biological cells, comprising:
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a cell-culture vessel comprising electrodes structured in an interdigitated array of electrode branch elements, the cell-culture vessel operable to hold a cell-culture medium having biological cells attachable to the electrodes and the electrode branch elements arranged to be staggered with a non-uniform distance between each of the electrode branch elements; and circuitry electrically coupled to the electrodes and comprising a detection resistor and a stimulator to apply an alternating current (AC) signal at different frequencies to the electrodes and configured to control a frequency range of the AC signal to be between a low frequency and a high frequency;
whereinthe electrodes have an equivalent electrical circuit that is dominated by interface capacitance at the low frequency and is dominated by spreading resistance at the high frequency. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A cell-electrode impedance sensor for use in a cell-electrode impedance measurement system, comprising:
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an interdigitated electrode array comprising a plurality of branch elements that have non-uniform actual widths and are separated by non-uniform distances, the plurality of branch elements characterized by design parameters including one or more effective widths of the branch elements, a length of the branch elements, a surface area of the branch elements, and a number of the branch elements;
wherein the design parameters are determined based on a design model for the cell-electrode impedance sensor, the design model predicting a cell free cell-electrode impedance and a cell covered cell-electrode impedance; andwherein each of the non-uniform actual widths of the branch elements is less than each of the effective width of the branch elements obtained based on the design parameters, to account for a non-uniform electric field distribution over each branch element; wherein the interdigitated electrode array has an equivalent electrical circuit that is dominated by interface capacitance at a low frequency and is dominated by spreading resistance at a high frequency. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification