Silicon Microphotonic Waveguides for Biological Sensing

The advantages of the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide platform are examined for evanescent field (EF) based biological sensing. It is suggested that the high index contrast (HIC) inherent to SOI waveguides allows sensors fabricated in this material to demonstrate improved sensitivity over that of all other common planar waveguide platforms for the probing of thin biological layers.