Advanced photonic biosensors for point-of-care diagnostics

Abstract

The application of portable, easy-to-use and highly sensitive biosensor devices for real-time diagnosis could offer significant advantages over current analytical methods. Silicon photonic biosensors based on evanescent wave detection have revealed themselves as the most promise candidates for achieving truly point-of-care devices. Advantages as miniaturization, extreme sensitivity, robustness, reliability, potential for multiplexing and mass production at low cost can be offered. We present our work towards the assembly of a point-of-care device by using integrated silicon interferometers sensors, polymer microfluidics and diffractive grating couplers for light in-coupling. The micro/nanointerferometric devices have shown sensitivity close to 10 -7 in refractive index units, which means an ability to discern, in a label-free scheme, concentrations of biological molecules at pM level. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.