TinyStat: A Miniaturised Potentiostat for Portable Electrochemical Measurements

Technological advancements in the fabrication of smaller and more efficient electronic components have enabled minituarisation of measurement devices that were once confined to benchtop applications. There is now a unique opportunity to create devices that could even be wearable for remote, continuous monitoring of chemical processes within the human body. One such measurement device that can dynamically measures chemicals using electrochemical analysis techniques is the potentiostat. Previous attempts to miniturise the potentiostat have been made, however, most use discrete components for their analog-front ends, which can increase noise, variability and manufacturing complexity. This paper presents a new miniturised potentiostat device called TinyStat, of size 20mm (W) x 10mm (H), with the ability to conduct cyclic voltammetry measurements in a ferrocene methanol solution. Electrical measurements of TinyStat were also measured against a benchtop potentiostat, resulting in a voltage accuracy within +/- 0.6 mV and current accuracy within +/- 2.5 nA. The presented potentiostat device forms the first stage of a potentiostat device with the end goal of being a wireless, low-cost neurochemical sensing device to continuously monitor neurological conditions.