Biosensors rely on optical techniques to obtain high sensitivity and speed, but almost all biochips still require external light sources, optics, and detectors, which limits the widespread use of these devices. The optoelectronics technology base now allows monolithic integration of versatile optical sources, novel sensing geometries, filters, spectrometers, and detectors, enabling highly integrated chip-scale sensors. We discuss biophotonic integrated circuits built on both GaAs and InP substrates, incorporating widely tunable lasers, novel evanescent field sensing waveguides, heterodyne spectrometers, and waveguide photodetectors, suitable for high sensitivity transduction of affinity assays.

Date Published: 20 December 2004
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 5594, Physics and Applications of Optoelectronic Devices, (20 December 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.570010

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5594:
Physics and Applications of Optoelectronic Devices
Joachim Piprek, Editor(s)