A method of initializing a sensor with a voltage sequence including a ramped voltage combined with a biphasic voltage pulse. The initialization scheme results in faster in-vitro sensor run-in and stabilization times. In various examples, the in-vitro sensor stabilization time is reduced from 200 minutes to 40-55 minutes (a reduction by a factor of least 5 as compared to a non-initialized sensor). In addition, staircase voltage initialization is implemented adaptively so that the voltage step size and sweep rates are changed depending on the state of the sensor (characterized by ISIG magnitude). As a result, individual sensors can be initialized in a customized manner rather than by using a general hardwired and harsh initialization scheme.