Silicon photonic wire evanescent field sensors: sensor arrays and instrumentation
2011
We are developing a photonic wire evanescent field (PWEF) sensor chip using 260 nm x 450 nm cross-section silicon
photonic wire waveguides. The waveguide mode is strongly localized near the silicon surface, so that light interacts
strongly with molecules bound to the waveguide surface. The millimeter long sensor waveguides can be folded into tight
spiral structures less than 200 micrometers in diameter, which can be arrayed at densities up to ten or more independent
sensors per square millimeter. The long propagation length in each sensor element gives a response to molecular binding
much better than currently available tools for label-free molecular sensing. Cost of instrumentation, cost per
measurement, ease-of-use, and the number of sensors that can be simultaneously monitored on a sensor array chip are
equally important in determining whether an instrument is practical for the end user and hence commercially viable. The
objective of our recent work on PWEF sensor array chips and the associated instrumentation is to address all of these
issues. This conference paper reviews our ongoing work on the photonic wire sensor chip design and layout, on-chip
integrated fluidics, optical coupling, and chip interrogation using arrays of grating couplers formed using sub-wavelength
patterned structures.
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