Integrated sensor technology

Modern semiconductor manufacturing processes enable the production of miniaturized photonic components, which will make it possible in the future to accommodate entire laboratories based on common optical analysis methods on a single chip. Single-chip laboratories are of interest for mobile and patient-oriented diagnostics in combination with smartphones or for drinking water analysis, among other things. The goal is for hundreds of optical sensors to work in parallel on a single chip in such a lab, enabling the analysis of complex mixtures of substances.

At INT, interferometers and waveguide structures suitable for this purpose are being developed, which operate as refractive index sensors, for example. Covered with functional layers, these can bind specific molecules and enable the detection of even the smallest concentrations of substances. The dual-mode interferometer designed at INT, in which two modes are excited in a single waveguide and interfere again after a sensor region, is particularly compact. Co-integration with photodiodes and electrical evaluation circuits also promises compact product solutions for other fields of application, such as distance and speed measurement (LiDAR).