MISSION (Mid- Infrared Silicon Photonic Sensors for Healthcare and Environmental Monitoring)

硅光子学是在硅芯片上的电子光子电路技术，正在改变通信技术，特别是数据中心通信，并将光子学引入大众市场，利用波长范围为1.2微米至1.6微米的技术。我们的愿景是将硅光子学的技术能力扩展到中红外（MIR）波长（3-15微米），将低成本制造，技术小型化和集成的优势带到大量新应用中，改变大众的日常生活。为了做到这一点，我们建议开发低成本，高性能，硅光子学芯片级传感器，工作在MIR波长区域。这将改变医疗保健和环境监测的管理方式。MIR的主要吸引力在于它含有对多种分子和物质的强吸收指纹，能够进行敏感和特定的检测（例如CO2， CH4, H2S，酒精，蛋白质，脂质，爆炸物等），因此MIR传感器可以解决医疗保健（例如癌症，中毒，感染）和环境监测（微量气体分析，气候引起的变化，水污染）中的挑战。以及其他应用，如工业过程控制（温室气体排放），安全（在机场和火车站检测爆炸物和毒品），或食品质量（油，水果储存），仅举几例。然而，MIR器件目前在体光学中实现，集成的MIR光子学处于起步阶段，许多MIR元件和电路要么尚未开发，要么其性能不如可见光/近红外对应物。来自南安普顿大学、谢菲尔德大学和约克大学、南安普顿大学医院和国家海洋学中心的研究领导者将利用他们在光子学、电子学、传感和封装方面的世界领先专业知识，释放集成MIR光子学的全部潜力。我们将为生物医学和环境传感实现低成本、可批量制造的器件和电路，并随后通过与源、检测器、微流控通道和读出电路的片上集成来提高性能，并建立示范，以突出该技术在重要应用领域的多功能性。我们最初将重点关注以下应用，这些应用是通过咨询该技术的最终用户（NHS和我们的工业合作伙伴）来选择的：1)治疗药物监测（例如万古霉素、利福平和苯妥英）；2)液体活检（从血样中快速诊断癌症）；3)海洋监测（CO2、CH4、N2O检测）。

Silicon Photonics, the technology of electronic-photonic circuits on silicon chips, is transforming communications technology, particularly data centre communications, and bringing photonics to mass markets, utilising technology in the wavelength range 1.2 micrometres - 1.6 micrometres. Our vision is to extend the technical capability of Silicon Photonics to Mid -Infrared (MIR) wavelengths (3-15 micrometres), to bring the benefits of low cost manufacturing, technology miniaturisation and integration to a plethora of new applications, transforming the daily lives of mass populations. To do this we propose to develop low-cost, high performance, silicon photonics chip-scale sensors operating in the MIR wavelength region. This will change the way that healthcare, and environmental monitoring are managed. The main appeal of the MIR is that it contains strong absorption fingerprints for multiple molecules and substances that enable sensitive and specific detection (e.g. CO2, CH4, H2S, alcohols, proteins, lipids, explosives etc.) and therefore MIR sensors can address challenges in healthcare (e.g. cancer, poisoning, infections), and environmental monitoring (trace gas analysis, climate induced changes, water pollution), as well as other applications such as industrial process control (emission of greenhouse gases), security (detection of explosives and drugs at airports and train stations), or food quality (oils, fruit storage), to name but a few. However, MIR devices are currently realised in bulk optics and integrated MIR photonics is in its infancy, and many MIR components and circuits have either not yet been developed or their performance is inferior to their visible/near-IR counterparts. Research leaders from the Universities of Southampton, Sheffield and York, the University Hospital Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre will utilise their world leading expertise in photonics, electronics, sensing and packaging to unleash the full potential of integrated MIR photonics. We will realise low cost, mass manufacturable devices and circuits for biomedical and environmental sensing, and subsequently improve performance by on-chip integration with sources, detectors, microfluidic channels, and readout circuits and build demonstrators to highlight the versatility of the technology in important application areas. We will initially focus on the following applications, which have been chosen by consulting end users of the technology (the NHS and our industrial partners): 1) Therapeutic drug monitoring (e.g. vancomycin, rifampicin and phenytoin); 2) Liquid biopsy (rapid cancer diagnostics from blood samples); 3) Ocean monitoring (CO2, CH4, N2O detection).