Highly Sensitive Integrated Photonic Temperature Sensor Exploiting a Polymeric Microring Resonator

A highly sensitive integrated photonic temperature sensor was proposed and developed incorporating a polymeric microring resonator. The change in the ambient temperature was estimated by observing the shift in the resonant wavelength of the resonator induced via the thermooptic effect. For the purpose of enhancing its sensitivity, the sensor was built by implementing a polymeric resonator exhibiting a high thermooptic coefficient on a silicon substrate with a small coefficient of thermal expansion. For the range of from 20 degrees C to 30 degrees C near the room temperature, the fabricated sensor yielded a sensitivity of as high as 165 pm/degrees C and a resolution of better than 0.1 degrees C. And its performance was found to be hardly affected by the variation in the refractive index of the target analyte, which was applied to the surface of the sensor. It is hence expected that the sensor could be integrated with other refractormetric optical sensors, thereby compensating for the fatal error caused by the change in the ambient temperature.