Microphotonic sensor for monitoring of water chemistry

我们将开发一种集成的、超紧凑的化学传感器阵列系统，适用于检测水中常见污染物的ppb至ppm级。我们的主要目标是工业工艺用水或工业和城市废水中的磷酸盐、硝酸盐和铵。 该项目被批准为每年8万美元的资金。ABB在其关于“水分析传感器”的提案中提出了建议。 拟议的工作使用一个新开发的微光子硅芯片，已经被复用成128个并行光通道。该传感器平台涂有坚固的和定制设计的功能化介孔二氧化硅材料薄膜，申请人于2010年获得专利。 在当前的应用中，我们将开发微光子器件作为传感器-特别是硅波导环形谐振器。绝缘体上硅（SOI）微光子器件在硅晶片上制造，并且使用与电子集成电路微制造所采用的类似工艺制成，这意味着它们的制造适合于廉价的放大。我们的传感器阵列基于集成光学技术，即在单个芯片上执行导光、分配和传感。由于微光子学允许在非常紧凑的平台上进行高度并行化的检测，因此传感器阵列允许从百分比水平到十亿分之几水平对不同污染物进行同时和特定的定量。硅波导芯片与硅基材料完全兼容，从而在传感材料的设计中提供了极大增强的灵活性。 制备各种新的化学选择性材料以允许检测特定的化学污染物将是直接的。 在该项目期间，3名研究生和2名博士后研究员将接受材料合成，光学涂层应用，化学和光学特性薄膜表征以及微观分析技术的培训。部分培训将在ABB实验室进行。

We will develop an integrated, ultra-compact chemical sensor array system that is suitable for ppb to ppm level detection of common contaminants in water. Our main targets are phosphate, nitrate, and ammonium in industrial process water or industrial and municipal wastewater. The project was approved for funding at $80,000 p.a. by ABB in their call for proposals on "Sensors for water analysis". The proposed work uses a newly developed microphotonic silicon chip that has already been multiplexed into 128 parallel optical channels. This sensor platform is coated with rugged and custom-designed films of functionalized mesoporous silica materials, which were patented by the applicants in 2010. In the current application we will develop microphotonic devices as sensors - specifically, silicon-waveguide ring-resonators. Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) microphotonic devices are fabricated on silicon wafers and are made using similar processes as are employed for electronic integrated circuit microfabrication, which means that their fabrication is amenable to inexpensive scale-up. Our sensor arrays are based on integrated optics technologies, i.e. light guiding, distribution, and sensing are performed on a single chip. Since micro-photonics permits highly parallelized detection on a very compact platform, the sensor array allows for simultaneous and specific quantification of different contaminants from the percent level to the parts-per-billion level. The silicon waveguide chips are fully compatible with silica-based materials, thus providing a greatly enhanced flexibility in the design of the sensing materials. It will be straightforward to prepare a variety of new chemically selective materials to permit detection of specific chemical contaminants. During this project 3 graduate students and 2 postdoctoral fellows will be trained on material synthesis, application of optical coatings, thin film characterization for chemical and optical properties and micro-analytical techniques. Part of the training will take place at ABB's laboratories.