Scalable NMR spectroscopy with semiconductor chips

The strong application-driven need for portable NMR spectrometers has led to development of spectroscopy-grade permanent magnets. In contrast, NMR spectrometer electronics capable of modern multidimensional spectroscopy remain bulky. Here, we report on 4-mm² silicon spectrometer electronics chips, and perform various multidimensional NMR spectroscopies by using these chips with a permanent magnet. This combination of semiconductor technology and advanced permanent magnet technology is a step toward portable NMR spectrometers, which can enable in-field, on-demand, or online applications and facilitate co-use of NMR with other analytical methods. Besides the portable application, the spectrometer electronics chips with their cost/size economy can improve other NMR technologies—whether with permanent or superconducting magnet—such as multi-channel spectroscopy, phased-array imaging, microfluidic microscopy, and parallel, high-throughput spectroscopy.