Interfaces for biomedical complementary metal–oxide–semiconductors (bio/CMOS) are becoming increasingly necessary to support robust solutions for personalized healthcare. Effective personalized healthcare relies heavily on the ability to measure the attributes of biological compounds present in an individual’s body, whether these are metabolites or gene sequences. The author of this book delineates the medical aspects of personalized healthcare in the first chapter, providing a context that is understandable for readers unacquainted with the concept. This is followed by a brief presentation of the effects of some “life and death” therapies related to the presence of biological compounds in a patient, including the damage such therapies may have on a recipient if metabolites are not accurately measured. The author emphasizes the vital need for measurement device interfaces with biomolecular features. Current advances in assembling biological components with CMOS surfaces have produced the theoretical ability to correlate bio-measurement with electrochemical readings at the CMOS-interface level. The book shows that this has recently become practical as well, enabling the ambitious goals of personalized therapy in a reliable and cost-effective way.

I was particularly impressed by the linearly logical approach the author adopted. Indeed, concepts are developed step-by-step, with a gradual presentation of first principles and the deduction of next steps to understand a bio/CMOS interface. This enables a clear view of how each chapter fits into the global context of the book. As such, the reader is never at a loss when starting a chapter, because the previous chapters each link to the next in a clear progression of necessary concepts. This makes the book accessible to readers newly acquainted with the subject, as well as those experts who are only familiar with one aspect of it. Readers can grasp the overall intent of book while skipping some of the more arcane parts. The author does an excellent job of supporting the most complex aspects of the book, most often the very specific theoretical constructs of one domain or another, with sufficiently clear explanations, so that a savvy reader can continue the learning process and ultimately understand the necessary building blocks to design a bio/CMOS interface.

Chapters 2 through 4 introduce the structural features of metabolic and genetic biomolecules relevant to personalized medicine, and describe their behavior in conductive liquid solutions, with the associated quantitative chemistry concepts, such as equilibrium concentrations and constants, thermodynamics, energetics, and kinetics. The author presents these aspects in a progressive manner so that readers with advanced undergraduate-level knowledge of chemistry can derive these theoretical features easily. The author also contextualizes each concept in terms of its relevance for a bio/CMOS interface, which enables readers from the CMOS side of the subject (in this case, senior undergraduates with some exposure to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)) to skip some of the quantitative chemistry parts without losing track of the important steps that lead to the ultimate goal of the book, namely, the knowledge necessary to co-design bio/CMOS interfaces.

In the case of CMOS-savvy readers, some minimal exposure to senior-level undergraduate chemistry is necessary. Grasping the premise of the book requires some understanding of structural organic chemistry, the theory of solution chemistry, and kinetics, even if more complex theoretical chemistry is skipped. The ideal reader would have graduate-level knowledge of either chemistry with solid notions of CMOS technology, or advanced CMOS technology with solid notions of chemistry, or advanced levels of both.

Chapter 5 introduces existing models of the self-assembly of biomolecules adhering onto CMOS surfaces, which bridges the gap to the next chapters, which deal with the interfaces themselves. The remaining chapters, while still dealing with the electrochemistry of proteins and macromolecules, turn attention to the electronic effects at the surface level, manufacturing aspects of the interface, and microcircuit-level electrical features of the interfaces, including compensation models for surface-level discrepancies, electrical noise at the electrochemical layer, and sensing electronics. These chapters will be harder to grasp for chemists who lack in-depth knowledge of electronics, requiring perhaps more microelectronics knowledge from the chemist than the amount of chemistry knowledge required from the CMOS expert to grasp the first chapters. Fortunately, the author provides enough high-level information so that the chemist can fill the gaps, although probably not enough to master the co-designing of bio/CMOS interfaces.

The best audience for the book is readers with a graduate-level knowledge of chemistry, microelectronics, or microelectronic manufacturing. It would also likely benefit multifunctional teams involved in the design of bio/CMOS interfaces in an industrial or corporate research and development setting. Such multidisciplinary teams are often located in companies dealing with MEMS, nanotechnology, and medical sensing devices. Cooperative academic research teams with both types of expertise are also an optimal audience that could benefit from the book, both for PhD research and technological innovation in the field. Because the book is written cohesively, less knowledgeable readers will understand the fundamentals of bio/CMOS interfaces.

Overall, the book is excellent, with a mastery that shines light on a difficult topic in a progressively built context. I recommend it as a great pedagogical resource for graduate seminars and lectures, or as a reference for teams working in industrial research and development.