No abstract

Optical microcavity sensors are ideally suited for the development of optofluidic lab-on-chips and appear promising for application fields like drug development, bio-/chemical analyses, and medical diagnostics. In particular, planar integrated and low-footprint photonic sensors that are combined with microfluidics on wafer scale are attractive due to their mature fabrication technology. We present integrated optical refractometers and label-free biosensors based on low loss deposited silicon microring resonators. The microrings are employed for refractive index sensing and biomolecule immobilization. The sensors which are embedded in silicon-glass or polymer microfluidic channels are studied for their sensitivities and detection limits by using conventional wavelength scanning instrumentation and a novel on-chip microheater based wavelength-to-power transducer method.