Progress in Ion Torrent semiconductor chip based sequencing

Barry Merriman,
Ion Torrent R&D Team^†,
Jonathan M. Rothberg^*

Article first published online: 4 DEC 2012

DOI: 10.1002/elps.201200424

Issue

ELECTROPHORESIS

Special Issue: Next Generation Sequencing and Genotyping

Volume 33, Issue 23, pages 3397–3417, December 2012

Additional Information(Show All)

How to Cite Author Information Publication History

^†
This paper represents the collective work of the Ion Torrent R&D Team over the past three years. This is a team of over 300 people, in which many people have made important contributions. For a full list of members of this team, please see the Addendum at the end of this manuscript.

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Keywords:

Biosensor;
CMOS sensor array;
DNA sequencing;
ISFET;
Next-generation sequencing

Abstract

In order for next-generation sequencing to become widely used as a diagnostic in the healthcare industry, sequencing instrumentation will need to be mass produced with a high degree of quality and economy. One way to achieve this is to recast DNA sequencing in a format that fully leverages the manufacturing base created for computer chips, complementary metal-oxide semiconductor chip fabrication, which is the current pinnacle of large scale, high quality, low-cost manufacturing of high technology. To achieve this, ideally the entire sensory apparatus of the sequencer would be embodied in a standard semiconductor chip, manufactured in the same fab facilities used for logic and memory chips. Recently, such a sequencing chip, and the associated sequencing platform, has been developed and commercialized by Ion Torrent, a division of Life Technologies, Inc. Here we provide an overview of this semiconductor chip based sequencing technology, and summarize the progress made since its commercial introduction. We described in detail the progress in chip scaling, sequencing throughput, read length, and accuracy. We also summarize the enhancements in the associated platform, including sample preparation, data processing, and engagement of the broader development community through open source and crowdsourcing initiatives.

Abbreviations