Detection of Plasmodium Falciparum Parasite Intraerythrocytic Stages using One Dimensional Distributed Bragg Reflector Biosensor

This work proposes, the design and analysis of 1D Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) with a central micro cavity to sense the presence of Plasmodium falciparum parasite which causes malaria disease. Early detection of malaria is a vital requirement in biomedical applications. Plasmodium falciparum parasite enter human body with the byte of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. This parasite resides in the human Red Blood Cells and starts invading RBCs by growing and multiplying in the cell. P. falciparum undergoes various erythrocytic stages in the host RBC cells. Detection of these infected stages of RBC is utmost important by using appropriate diagnostic techniques. 1D Photonic Crystal biosensors find its application for the early detection of malignant cells. Here, a multi-layered DBR structure is designed and analyzed for the detection of P. falciparum parasite in its various stages in the analyte. The proposed structure uses N=3 layers for the initial analysis and is finally chosen as 8 layers to enhance the Q factor. The central defect cavity length is varied to choose proper defect length which gives better sensor sensitivity. The obtained sensitivity and Q factor for the proposed structure is 4500nm/RIU and 8333 respectively. Form the attained simulation results it is justifiable that the proposed sensor can be used for the detection malaria disease in its early stage.