On the Physical Design of Molecular Communication Receiver Based on Nanoscale Biosensors

TL;DR

This paper explores the physical design of molecular receivers using nanoscale biosensors, particularly bioFETs, to enable practical nanonetwork communication without relying solely on biological nanomachines.

Contribution

It proposes a bioFET-based molecular receiver design framework, including operation principles, performance metrics, and a simple signal flow model, addressing practical implementation challenges.

Findings

BioFETs are promising for molecular receiver design.

A simple signal flow model for SiNW FET-based receivers is proposed.

Discussion of practical challenges and future research directions.

Abstract

Molecular communications (MC), where molecules are used to encode, transmit, and receive information, is a promising means of enabling the coordination of nanoscale devices. The paradigm has been extensively studied from various aspects, including channel modeling and noise analysis. Comparatively little attention has been given to the physical design of molecular receiver and transmitter, envisioning biological synthetic cells with intrinsic molecular reception and transmission capabilities as the future nanomachines. However, this assumption leads to a discrepancy between the envisaged applications requiring complex communication interfaces and protocols, and the very limited computational capacities of the envisioned biological nanomachines. In this paper, we examine the feasibility of designing a molecular receiver, in a physical domain other than synthetic biology, meeting the basic requirements of nanonetwork applications. We first review the state-of-the-art biosensing approaches to determine whether they can inspire a receiver design. We reveal that nanoscale field effect transistor based electrical biosensor technology (bioFET) is a particularly useful starting point for designing a molecular receiver. Focusing on bioFET-based molecular receivers with a conceptual approach, we provide a guideline elaborating on their operation principles, performance metrics and design parameters. We then provide a simple model for signal flow in silicon nanowire (SiNW) FET-based molecular receiver. Lastly, we discuss the practical challenges of implementing the receiver and present the future research avenues from a communication theoretical perspective.