Abstract
This paper presents a grating~integrated SPR (Surface Plasmon Resonance) sensor chip for simple and inexpensive biomolecule detection. The grating-integrated SPR sensor chip has two sensing channels having a nano grating for SPR coupling. An external mirror is used for multi channel SPR sensing. The present sensor chip replaces bulky and expensive optical components, such as fiber-optic switches or special shaped prisms, resulting in a simple and inexpensive wavelength modulated multi-channel SPR sensing system. We fabricate a SPR sensor chip integrated with 835 nm-pitch gratings by a micromolding technique to reduce the fabrication cost. In the experimental characterization, the refractive index sensitivity of each sensing channel is measured as $321.8{\pm}8.1nm$/RI and $514.3{\pm}8.lnm$/RI, respectively. 0.5uM of the target biomolecule (streptavidin) was detected by a $1.13{\pm}0.16nm$ shift of the SPR dip in the 10%-biotinylated sample channel, while the SPR dip in the reference channel for environmental perturbation monitoring remained at the same position. From the experimental results, multi-channel biomolecule detection capability of the present grating-integrated SPR sensor chip has been verified. On the basis of the preliminary experiments, we successfully measured the binding reaction rate for the $2\;nM{\sim}200\;nM$ monoclonal-antibiotin, thus verifying biomolecule concentration detectability of the present SPR sensor chip. The binding reaction rates measured from the present SPR sensor chip agredd well with those from a commercialized SPR sensor.
