Computer simulations of the responses of passive and active integrated microbiosensors to cell activity

Abstract Detection of cell activity via solid-state microtransducers is a rapidly growing research area. In order to design and test microdevices optimized for specific biological applications, ranging from cell electrophysiology to cell pharmacology, there is an increasing need for systematic computer simulations. As specific examples, the performances of noble-metal microelectrodes, ion-sensitive field-effect transistors (ISFETs) and light-addressable potentiometric sensors (LAPSs) are analysed and discussed by means of computer simulations based on their equivalent circuits.