Grant: Idea to Innovation

Biological and chemical sensors are widely sought for applications in medical diagnostics, threat detection, and industrial process control. Furthermore, there is an increasing demand for sensors that are low-cost, mobile, sensitive, reliable, and provide immediate readout for identification of multiple analytes. Optical sensors have well-known advantages, including immunity to electromagnetic interference, compatibility with harsh environments, and the potential for non-destructive analysis of samples. Moreover, optical detection is heavily favored for lab-on-chip (LOC) systems, and there is recently great interest in chip-scale optical sensors, enabled by co-integration of microfluidics and integrated optics. The development of these sensors is currently hindered by the lack of integration of optical detection methods. To date, most work relies on large-scale and expensive off-chip optical devices such as confocal microscopes and optical spectrum analyzers. For applications such as point-of-care diagnostics and field-deployable threat detectors, this has delayed the widespread commercial deployment of LOC techniques. The main objective of the project is the development and demonstration of an integrated micro-spectrometer operating in the ~800-1000 nm wavelength band. Based on a novel type of waveguide-coupled, graded Fabry-Perot cavity, the spectrometer has no moving parts and provides a unique mix of small size, high resolving power, and wide operational bandwidth. We also believe it is well-suited for integration within LOC systems. Secondary objectives are to develop and demonstrate prototype systems that exploit the spectrometer, and thus establish its industrial applicability. In particular, we will apply the device to near-infrared Raman spectroscopy, which is a particularly promising approach to label-free sensing of molecules.