Silicon photonic sensors and actuators for biological systems

硅光子学的目标不亚于光学和电子学的完全融合。首先，这种亲切的态度旨在克服自然界在使用电子传输信息方面施加的限制。然而，这项工作已经提出了更通用的光学技术，可以将其微型化到硅芯片上。事实上，工程师们正在慢慢地在硅上建立一个完整的光学工具箱，包括探测器、调制器和光谱仪。为目前的工作而组建的国际财团在提供长期追求的芯片上光源方面已经取得了重大进展。这里提出的可行性研究旨在建立在该财团和其他地方发现的现有专业知识的基础上，将这些技术应用于单生物分子的光学检测和操作，而不是将其微型化，从而在硅芯片上提供具有此类功能的设备。这项工作的影响将得到加强，因为所使用的方法与标准硅片制造过程中使用的方法相兼容，并且最终产品可以批量生产(以每单位成本衡量)，用于每个家庭、医生的外科医生/药剂师的个性化保健应用；用于检测低水平大气或水中携带的污染物或用于反恐/军事应用

The aim of Silicon photonics is nothing less than the complete convergence of optics and electronics. In the first instance this endeaviour was aimed at oversoming the limitations imposed by nature in the transport of information using electrons. However, the work has already thrown up more general optical technologies which can be minaturised onto silicon chips. In fact, engineers are slowly building a whole optics toolbox on silicon, including detectors, modulators and spectrometers. The international consortium assembled for the current work have already made significant progress in providing the long sought after on-chip light source. The feasibility studies proposed here are aimed at building on the existing expertise found in the consortium and elsewhere to apply these technologies to the optical detection and manipulation of single biomolecules in a way than can be miniaturised giving devices that have such functionalities on a silicon chip. The impact of the work will be enhanced by the fact that the approaches used are compatible with those used during the manufacture of standard silicon chips and that the end products can be mass produced (at costs measured in cents per unit) for personalised health care applications in every home, doctor's surgery/pharmacist; for the detection of low level atmosphere or water born pollutants or for counter terrorism/military applications