A micro-ring resonator as a DEP electrode: Bioparticle interaction phenomena and sensing integration issues

生物分析研究的现代趋势指向跨学科方法和小型化和数字化，允许与现代微电子有效集成，从而使具有高度特异性分子相互作用的无标签自动化传感器成为可能。在拟议的项目中，光子微环共振传感和介电电泳（DEP）融合在一个单一的微芯片中，并结合创新的基于点击的表面化学来控制和检查分子相互作用和传质。创新的导电镜像谐振器保留了光学特性，直径仅为10 μ m，将用作DEP电极，将所需的生物颗粒直接聚焦到传感器表面。这要归功于BVT和IHP独特的跨学科星座，允许生产适用于生物系统的专业半导体技术。提出的便携式设备可以绕过分子扩散导致的生物传感电流限制，从而允许更快的测量，并有可能达到迄今为止未达到的灵敏度。此外，微环共振传感还允许监测自由生物颗粒与电场之间的基本相互作用以及提取其介电特性。此外，通过用TE和TM极化激发硅微环，可以监测固定探针分子的结构变化，如单层拉伸和弯曲以及诱导的构象变化。将生物颗粒聚焦到电极的单个点上的能力也将应用于探索和优化创新的表面功能化策略和生物颗粒图案固定的新方法。我们对这个项目的目标不仅是开发一种具有非凡灵敏度的新型创新传感器，而且在理论和实践上奠定坚实的基础，旨在简化分子传感中介电电泳的未来整合。

Modern trends in bioanalytical research point toward interdisciplinary approaches and a miniaturization and digitalization that allows effective integration with modern microelectronics, and thus enable label-free automated sensors with highly specific molecular interactions. In the proposed project, photonic micro ring resonance sensing and dielectrophoresis (DEP) are fused together into a single microchip and combined with innovative click-based surface chemistry to control and examine molecular interactions and mass transfers. Innovative conducting mirroring resonators with retained optical properties and only a few 10 µm diameter will be used as the DEP electrode that focus the desired bioparticles directly onto the sensor surface. This will be realized thanks to a unique interdisciplinary constellation of BVT and IHP, allowing the production of professional semiconductor technology adapted to biological systems.The proposed portable device may bypass current limitation in biosensing attributed to molecular diffusion, thus allowing faster measurements and the potential to reach so far unattained sensitivities. Micro-ring resonance sensing may in addition allow to monitor the fundamental interaction between the free bioparticles and the electric field as well as to extract its dielectric properties. Further, by exciting the silicon micro-ring with TE and TM polarization it is possible to monitor structural changes of the immobilized probing molecules such as monolayer stretching and bending as well as induced conformational changes.The ability to focus bioparticles onto a single spot of an electrode will also be applied to explore and optimize innovative surface functionalization strategies and new methods for patterned immobilization of bioparticles. Our ambition with this project is not only to develop a new innovative sensor with extraordinary sensitivity but to lay a solid foundation, theoretically and practically aiming to simplify future integration of dielectrophoresis in molecular sensing.