Jobst Technologies (Germany)

The rapid urbanization of the modern world initiated the emergence of digital cities, where advanced technologies converge to optimize urban living and address the limitations of a rapidly growing population. Central to this transformation are digital platforms and cloud computing. These interconnected technologies aid in shaping the future of urban landscapes, fostering sustainability, efficiency, and improved quality of life. Digital platforms serve as the backbone of smart cities, enabling seamless integration and management of various urban services and systems. One significant application of digital platforms in smart cities is the implementation of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). By integrating real-time traffic data, public transit information, and ride-sharing services, these platforms facilitate efficient transportation management, reduce congestion, and decrease carbon emissions. Cloud computing serves as a key enabler for managing the massive data flows generated by smart city infrastructures. The scalability and flexibility offered by cloud-based solutions allow cities to manage their resources efficiently and access computing power on demand without the need for extensive physical infrastructure. Cloud computing enhances smart city development by enabling collaborative data access and interaction among diverse stakeholders, from government agencies to private firms and residents.

Broad-band Mach-Zehnder interferometry is analytically described and experimentally demonstrated as an analytical tool capable of high accuracy refractive index measurements over a wide spectral range. Suitable photonic engineering of the interferometer sensing and reference waveguides result in sinusoidal TE and TM spectra with substantially different eigen-frequencies. This allows for the instantaneous deconvolution of multiplexed polarizations and enables large spectral shifts and noise reduction through filtering in the Fourier Transform domain. Due to enhanced sensitivity, optical systems can be designed that employ portable spectrum analyzers with nm range resolution without compromising the sensor analytical capability. Practical detection limits in the 10(-6)-10(-7) RIU range are achievable, including temperature effects. Finally, a proof of concept device is realized on a silicon microphotonic chip that monolithically integrates broad-band light sources and single mode silicon nitride waveguides. Refractive index detection limits rivaling that of ring resonators with externally coupled laser sources are demonstrated. Sensitivities of 20 μm/RIU and spectral shifts in the tens of a pm are obtained.

Despite the advances in optical biosensors, the existing technological approaches still face two major challenges: the inherent inability of most sensors to integrate the optical source in the transducer chip, and the need to specifically design the optical transducer per application. In this work, the development of a radical optoelectronic platform is demonstrated based on a monolithic optocoupler array fabricated by standard Si-technology and suitable for multi-analyte detection. The platform has been specifically designed biochemical sensing. In the all-silicon array of transducers, each optocoupler has its own excitation source, while the entire array share a common detector. The light emitting devices (LEDs) are silicon avalanche diodes biased beyond their breakdown voltage and emit in the VIS-NIR part of the spectrum. The LEDs are coupled to individually functionalized optical transducers that converge to a single detector for multiplexed operation. The integrated nature of the basic biosensor scheme and the ability to functionalize each transducer independently allows for the development of miniaturized optical transducers tailored towards multi-analyte tests. The monolithic arrays can be used for a plethora of bio/chemical interactions becoming thus a versatile analytical tool. The platform has been successfully applied in bioassays and binding in a real-time and label-free format and is currently being applied to ultra-sensitive food safety applications.

The proven capability of optical biosensors for highly-sensitive biochemical determinations has not been proven so far adequate to render them into commercial, portable devices. Their advancement has mainly stumbled upon two challenges: the inherent inability of most sensors to integrate the optical source onto the same chip, and the need to specifically design the optical transducer per application. In this work, a radical approach for label-free multiplexed sensing is presented. It incorporates two significant novelties: (1) an all-silicon array of monolithically integrated optical transducers, all having their own excitation source but sharing a common detector, and (2) the Frequency-resolved Mach-Zehnder Interferometry (FR-MZI) principle of operation. Monolithically integrated FR-MZI devices showed a limit of detection of Δn=4×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-6</sup> . The proposed device can be used interchangeably for a plethora of bio/chemical determinations becoming thus an unsurpassable versatile analytical tool.

A foil-based BioMEMS for electrochemical capillary immunoassay for hepatitis serology is presented. Immobilization of the hepatitis antigen utilizing capillary forces and special stopping barriers in foil based microsystems and the application of it in fast immunoassays will be shown. The measurement starts with the addition of the antibody containing human serum sample. Subsequently the signal antibody labelled with glucose oxidase binds to the hepatitis B antibody and converts glucose to hydrogen peroxide, which is oxidized at the electrode in the measurement cell. The assay is very sensitive and designed to differentiate between hepatitis B negative (below 10 U/l) and positive serum. The present limit of detection of immunoassays in the BioMEMS is 20 atto-moles.