Silicon Photonics Suspended Micro-Ring Resonator Biosensors

Soha Yusuf 
| November 15th 2022 – 11 am, NYUAD C1 (ERB) -045 |

Sensor applications as real-time, label-free “lab-on-a-chip” have posed an urgent need at higher sensitivities than current state-of-the-art technology. Significant interest has escalated in developing and researching optical sensors that are valuable due to their small footprint, large sensitivity, and wide dynamic range. This work is an experimental body of optical sensing devices based on micro-ring resonators with locally removing the buried oxide to generate suspended silicon structures on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. A novel suspended micro-ring resonator sensor using internal sub-wavelength gratings was presented and demonstrated, with achieved Q factors above 100k, and an intrinsic limit of detection on the order of 10-5 RIU. Sensing experiments with the sensor device were conducted with gas mixtures. A 90 nm slab micro-ring resonator structure was also presented in a bio-sensing demonstration with 25 base-pairs ssDNA/morpholino hybridization using a covalently functionalized surface (250 Pico molar detection).

Speaker’s Bio

Soha Yousuf was born in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She received her Master’s degree in Microsystems Engineering from the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi in 2016. In 2020, she earned her PhD Degree in Interdisciplinary Engineering from the Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi. Throughout her postgraduate studies, Soha worked on research related to the study of photonics, with a particular focus on the design, modeling, and characterization of optical micro-ring resonator sensors, as well as designing an optimized Lab-on-a-Chip system. Her research also extended to demonstrating proof-of-concept of these devices in environmental and biological applications. Soha’s current research interest focuses on advancing the science of smart materials by applying them to device applications.