Development ofNewLocalized Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor withNanoimprinting Technique

A newlocalized surface plasmonresonance sensor fabricated by thenanoimprinting technique ispresented. Nanoimprinting, oneofthemostimportant nanofabrication technologies, canproducestable nanopatterns ona substrate withhighthroughput. Inthis study, weapplythis technique to thepreparation ofsensorchipsfora low-cost andreliable biosensor. Theoptimal cross-sectional structure ofthesensor chipwascalculated byatwo-dimensional finite-difference time domain(FDTD)simulation method.Thesensorchipwiththe optimized structure wasfabricated bynanoimprinting ofthe nanopatterned metalmold ontoa UV-curable resinand subsequent sputtering ofathingoldfilm. Using this fabrication process, anextremely large numberofsensor chips caneasily be producedfroma single metalmoldwithhighaccuracy and reproducibility. Thecharacteristics ofthefabricated sensor chips wereevaluated by measuring theirabsorption spectra. The absorption peakduetothelocalized SPRcouldbeobserved, whichwasalmostconsistent withthesimulation result. The sensitivity ofthis sensorchipwasconfirmed tobecomparable withthatof thestandardlocalized SPR sensorunder development. Thelow-cost, stable, high-sensitivity biosensors thatcanbeconstructed bythepresent process willgenerate practical protein chipsand point-of-care chips, whichare expected tobecomekeydiagnosis tools inthefuture. Keywords-component; nanoimprinting; surfaceplasmon resonance; biosensor