Real-time detection of influenza A virus using semiconductor nanophotonics

Modern miniaturization and the digitalization of characterization instruments greatly facilitate the diffusion of technological advances in new fields and generate innovative applications. The concept of a portable, inexpensive and semi-automated biosensing platform, or lab-on-a-chip, is a vision shared by many researchers and venture industries. Under this scope, we present a semiconductor monolithic integration approach to conduct surface plasmon resonance studies. This technology is already commonly used for biochemical characterization in pharmaceutical industries, but we have reduced the technological platform to a few nanometers in scale on a semiconductor chip. We evaluate the signal quality of this nanophotonic device using hyperspectral-imaging technology, and we compare its performance with that of a standard prism-based commercial system. Two standard biochemical agents are employed for this characterization study: bovine serum albumin and inactivated influenza A virus. Time resolutions of data acquisition varying between 360 and 2.2 s are presented, yielding 2.7×10 −5 –1.5×10 −6 RIU resolutions, respectively. Nanophotonics: Flu sensor Scientists in Canada have developed an optoelectronic chip that performs real-time detection of the flu virus. The integrated semiconductor device combines a quantum-well-based light source with a surface plasmon sensor made from a corrugated metal–dielectric (Au–SiO 2 ) interface. Tests performed by Dominic Lepage and co-workers from the Universitié de Sherbrooke show that the nanophotonic chip can detect inactivated influenza A virus and bovine serum albumin with a sensitivity of 1.5 × 10 –6 refractive index units and a time resolution as short as 2.2 s. Since the measurements are carried using a microscope, this approach provides biomedical researchers with a convenient and affordable means of studying viral dynamics.