In nature, the incorporation of a deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) into a growing DNA strand involves the formation of a covalent bond and the release of pyrophosphate and a positively charged hydrogen ion. A dNTP will only be incorporated if it is complementary to the leading unpaired template nucleotide. Ion semiconductor sequencing exploits these facts by determining if a hydrogen ion is released upon providing a single species of dNTP to the reaction.
Microwells on a semiconductor chip that each contain many copies of one single-stranded template DNA molecule to be sequenced and DNA polymerase are sequentially flooded with unmodified A, C, G or T dNTP. If an introduced dNTP is complementary to the next unpaired nucleotide on the template strand it is incorporated into the growing complementary strand by the DNA polymerase. If the introduced dNTP is not complementary there is no incorporation and no biochemical reaction. The hydrogen ion that is released in the reaction changes the pH of the solution, which is detected by an ISFET. The unattached dNTP molecules are washed out before the next cycle when a different dNTP species is introduced.