Modeling and simulation of silicon photonics based optical ring resonator biosensor

Abstract

In the photonic technological platforms, the signal is carried by light rather than an electron as in conventional electronic technologies. Electronic processing of the signals is becoming restricted, particularly in the multi-GHz frequency range, due to the parasitic effects of the copper wires and other limitations of the materials used in micro and nanoelectronics domains. On the other hand, photonic technology can offer data transmission at the THz range. To harness the power of photonic technology, silicon-photonics would be a very effective platform because these devices use silicon as the optical medium that can be fabricated using the standard CMOS technology. A biosensor is an analytical device used for the identification of an analyte that conglomerates a vital element with a physicochemical indicator. Optical biosensors are comprised of a light source, light guiding medium, and photodetector. In recent decades, optical ring resonators gained importance as one of the promising biosensors due to miniaturized size and fast response. The optical ring resonator identifies the intended molecules or biochemical molecules by assessing the change in light behavior and that change in light behavior occurs due to the interactivity of the evanescent field of the resonating light with biosamples such as blood, serum, salvia, bacteria, protein or DNA traits present on the surface of the ring resonator. One of the most leading causes of death in modern times is different types of cancer. American Cancer Society in their recent report, states that in more than 50% of death by cancer, cancer has been diagnosed at the last stage. The core target of this thesis is to outline a silicon photonics biosensor based on an optical ring resonator for the identification of cancer and other diseases.