Towards Portable Nanophotonic Sensors

Abstract

A range of nanophotonic sensors composed of different materials and device configurations have been developed over the past two decades. These sensors have achieved high performance in terms of sensitivity and detection limit. The size of onchip nanophotonic sensors is also small and they are regarded as a strong candidate to provide the next generation sensors for a range of applications including chemical and biosensing for point-of-care diagnostics. However, the apparatus used to perform measurements of nanophotonic sensor chips is bulky, expensive and requires experts to operate them. Thus, although integrated nanophotonic sensors have shown high performance and are compact themselves their practical applications are limited by the lack of a compact readout system required for their measurements. To achieve the aim of using nanophotonic sensors in daily life it is important to develop nanophotonic sensors which are not only themselves small, but their readout system is also portable, compact and easy to operate. Recognizing the need to develop compact readout systems for onchip nanophotonic sensors, different groups around the globe have started to put efforts in this direction. This review article discusses different works carried out to develop integrated nanophotonic sensors with compact readout systems, which are divided into two categories; onchip nanophotonic sensors with monolithically integrated readout and onchip nanophotonic sensors with separate but compact readout systems.

Silicon‐Based Integrated Label‐Free Optofluidic Biosensors: Latest Advances and Roadmap

“…Monolithic integration of both passive optical sensors and active optoelectronic devices on a single sensor chip is hence highly sought after. [ 199–201 ]…”

“…Monolithic integration of both passive optical sensors and active optoelectronic devices on a single sensor chip is hence highly sought after. [199][200][201] In 2018, Laplatine et al reported silicon microring-based biosensors integrated with on-chip germanium PDs using fan-out wafer-level-packaging. [193] Sixteen independent microring resonators and associated germanium PDs were fabricated on a 1 mm 2 die (see Figure 11a) and packaged onto a chip with electrical interconnects and SU8 microfluidic channels, as presented in Figure 11b.…”

Directly immersible silicon photonic probes: Application to rapid SARS-CoV-2 serological testing

“…During the past two decades, the progress in micro/nano-fabrication techniques and in-depth understanding of photonic circuits has allowed the development of optical biosensing modules based on silicon substrates. These sensing modules take advantage of the fact that silicon-based photonic integrated circuits can be manufactured at high volume and relatively-low cost while there is possibility to fabricate multiple sensors on a single chip ( Luan et al, 2018 ; Shakoor et al, 2019 ). In addition, the high refractive index contrast between silicon and silicon dioxide/silicon nitride or other surrounding media, facilitates light coupling and light guiding in curved waveguides thus enabling the label-free sensing of affinity interactions between an analyte and a receptor molecule in real-time with high detection sensitivity ( Luan et al, 2018 ; Shakoor et al, 2019 ).…”

Organic Light‐Emitting Transistors in a Smart‐Integrated System for Plasmonic‐Based Sensing

“…[1] While high sensitivity and selectivity must be guaranteed, compactness, user-friendliness, and lowcost are key characteristics to enable the use of the sensing technology for pointof-care diagnostics without the need for trained personnel. [2] Among state-of-the-art methodologies, optical sensing has emerged as one of the most simple, versatile, and powerful approaches for analytical purposes. However, a major obstacle toward the development of a portable system has been the use of bulky optical components (e.g., lasers and optical fibers), which are necessary to ensure a good sensing capability.…”

“…[ 1 ] While high sensitivity and selectivity must be guaranteed, compactness, user‐friendliness, and low‐cost are key characteristics to enable the use of the sensing technology for point‐of‐care diagnostics without the need for trained personnel. [ 2 ]…”