imec’s research work to advance biosensors

Part 3: Biosensor developments

• Pol Van Dorpe discusses the institute’s use of photonics and silicon to develop new designs for medical diagnostics.
• imec has designed a breathalyser that detects the coronavirus with the accuracy of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, a claimed world first.

Pol Van Dorpe, an imec Fellow

Optics and photonics are advancing medical diagnostics in two notable ways.

The technologies are helping to shrink diagnostic systems to create new types of medical devices.

"Going from big lab equipment to something much smaller is a clear trend," says Pol Van Dorpe, a Fellow at imec, the Belgium R&D nanoelectronics and nanotechnology institute.

Photonics and silicon also benefit central labs by creating more powerful test instruments. More functionality and detectors can be integrated in a given area enabling multiple tests in parallel, a technique dubbed multiplexing.

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