An Infrared Radiation based Thermal Biosensor for Enzymatic Biochemical Reactions

In this paper, a thermal biosensor based on the infrared radiation energy is proposed for calorimetric measurement of biochemical reactions. Having a good structure design combined with MEMS technology as well as employing the Si /SiGe quantum well sensing material with a high TCR and low 1/f noise, the sensor shows potentials to be high sensitive and real-time. The urea enzymatic reaction was tested to verify the performance of sensor, which demonstrates a linear detection range from 0.5mM to 150mM and a relative standard deviation less than 1%. For the sensor fabrication, wafer-level transfer bonding is a key process, which makes the integration of quantum well material and a free standing structure possible. It reduces the heat loss from the sensor to the surrounding environment.