From Sensing Mechanisms to System Co‐Design: Graphene‐Based Sensors and Readout Circuits

Abstract

ABSTRACT Graphene‐based materials combining outstanding electrical, thermal, optical and mechanical properties have demonstrated remarkable potential for high‐performance sensing across optoelectronic, molecular, mechanical, magnetic and thermal applications. However, practical graphene sensing often involves relatively small stimulus‐induced changes in diverse electrical quantities, requiring dedicated readout electronics for accurate detection and conditioning. Existing reviews rarely treat sensing mechanisms and readout architectures in a unified system co‐design context, which leaves a gap between device demonstrations and deployable systems. To bridge device transduction and circuit interfacing, a three‐level PS–EQ–RF framework is proposed, which maps physical stimuli (PS) to electrical quantities (EQ) and to readout features (RF). Guided by the framework, this review organizes graphene‐based sensors according to electrical output characteristics into four categories: voltage‐source, current‐source, resistive (RS), and capacitive (CS) sensors. Key circuit modules, representative readout topologies, and practical implementations are analyzed for each category. We further provide system‐level co‐design guidelines, including metric mapping, architecture selection, low‐noise design, and mitigation of nonidealities, and discuss the evolution, remaining bottlenecks, and future directions of graphene‐based sensing systems. This review aims to provide a systematic view of graphene‐based sensing systems and to accelerate the transition of graphene‐based sensing technologies from laboratory prototypes to practical applications.