Photonic and biological characterization of an on-chip surface sensitive biosensor

Imec has developed on-chip surface sensitive biosensor technologies that employ waveguides or supercritical angle fluorescence. These devices are capable of measuring the presence of proteins in biological samples in just a matter of minutes. We have recently created some novel designs that we would like to better understand. The chips incorporating these improved designs have been fabricated and you will perform the following tasks

• Characterize the optical performance of the new chips and compare them against simulation results.
• Perform fluorescence immunoassays on the chip and measure sensitivity.
• Create an analysis program that can extract concentration information from the measured fluorescence signal.

During the course of the thesis, you will learn to

• Work on chips that have been fabricated in imec’s cleanroom
• Gain a theoretical understanding of waveguide and SAF sensing technology and its applications in the field of biosensing.
• Perform optical characterization experiments and compare the experimental performance of these chips against simulations performed using TFCalc or Lumerical FDTD.
• Perform immunoassays and write a python code to analyze the data generated.