Photonic Sensor for the Detection of Hemoglobin in Blood for Development of Point of Care Diagnostics

Recent pandemic has shown the lack of medical infrastructure worldwide. Development of cost-effective point of care devices will increase the accessibility of medical infrastructure. Currently in use, point of care bio technological devices has ability to detect only single parameter. Photonic sensing technology has come as a viable solution as it has an ability to detect changed components in the blood. In this research, we designed an optical biosensor which is able to detect levels of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration. The biosensor is based on photonic crystal, which allows improved light matter interactions. When the air in the photonic crystal is replaced by the hemoglobin and is excited with light, a spectrum of captured at the other end. Clear shift is observed in the power in the spectrum for different levels of the hemoglobin and is line with respect to concentration levels. The variation in the power absorption with respect to refractive index (RI) and frequency is observed. The designed sensor is highly sensitive with optimized Q factor. The design can be further developed in to a Lab-On-A-Chip environment to detect multiple components simultaneously.