Design of a silicon-based plasmonic biosensor chip for human blood-group identification

Surface plasmon resonance based silicon-chip biosensor is proposed for the detection of different human blood groups in near infrared region. The plasmonic structure based on silicon glass chip is suitable for simple and accurate low volume blood-group detection. Experimental results describing the wavelength-dependent refractive index variation of different blood groups are considered for theoretical calculations. The results are explained in terms of light coupling and plasmon resonance condition. The sensor's performance is closely analyzed in terms of its angular shift and curve width in order to predict the design considerations enabling precise blood-group identification. The proposed low-volume blood-group biosensor chip can be very useful in medical application. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.