Lab-on-a-chip breakthrough

(GATECH) researchers have found a way to shrink all the sensing power of sophisticated biosensors onto a single microchip. Such sensors can detect trace amounts of a chemical in a water supply or a substances in blood.

According to GATECH, in compact communication - signal processing and sensing optics technologies - multiple wavelengths of light are combined as a space-saving measure as they carry information. The wavelengths must then be separated again when they reach their destinations. Wavelengths used for these applications have very high spectral resolution, meaning the distance between wavelengths is very small. The device that sorts out these crowded wavelengths is called a wavelength-demultipler (WD).

Compact optical WDs are key in spectral analysis for biosensers small enough to fit on a chip and for integrated circuits for optical information processing.

Georgia Tech researchers have designed a WD able to function at very high resolution in much tighter confines (as small as 64 microns by 100 microns) by developing a new design for photonic crystals, which are highly periodic structures typically etched in very thin silicon that are designed to control light and have the potential to revolutionise everything from computing to communications.