A Bidirectional Current-Mirror Based Potentiostat Using a Slice-Based Class-AB Amplifier

A picoampere sensitive electrochemical sensor signal acquisition chain consisting of a multichannel bidirectional current-mirror -based potentiostat and a multiplexed current-input delta–sigma ( ${\Delta \Sigma }$ ) ADC is presented. Slice-based class-AB amplifiers with output stage current replication using reconfigurable current mirrors enable bidirectional current sensing over a range of five decades. The replicated current is digitized by the ADC. The proposed circuit achieves a minimum detectable current of 91.7 pA, resulting in a dynamic range of 147 dB for sensor currents up to ± 1 mA. The potentiostat is operated at a 3-V supply, the ADC at 1.5 V. The static power consumption of a single interface channel depends on the number of active amplifier slices and is between 14.1 and ${39.3~\boldsymbol {\mu } {\mathrm {W}}}$ . The highest power efficiency among similar systems and the low voltage headroom consumption of less than 500 mV enables a versatile use of the interface for multiple sensing applications.