Chip-based digital surface plasmon resonance sensing platform for ultrasensitive biomolecular detection

Abstract A chip-based ultrasensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor in a checkerboard nanostructure on plastic substrates is presented for digital detection. The sensing elements on the checkerboard are composed of silver-capped nanoslit arrays, which were fabricated using the thermal-embossing nanoimprint method, to meet the demand for low-cost and rapid fabrication. Sharp Fano resonances in the optimized nanoslit arrays provide high-intensity sensitivities (20,000% per refractive index unit), with an element size of 12.5 µm. The polarization-dependent transmission in the checkerboard pattern produces optical isolation between sensing elements and results in a crosstalk lower than 1%. Protein–antibody experiments demonstrated that the digital detection limit was up to 1 pg/mL, which is approximately 1000 times lower than that of conventional analog detection. For a 140 µm×140 µm checkerboard pattern, the dynamic range was approximately 100 times higher than that of conventional surface plasmon resonance measurements. This new digital detection method is very useful for detecting ultralow concentrations of analytes with a nonuniform distribution on the sensor surface.