Recent developments in optical biosensors based on integrated photonic devices are reviewed with a special emphasis on silicon-on-insulator ring resonators. The review is mainly devoted to the following aspects: (1) Principles of sensing mechanism, (2) sensor design, (3) biofunctionalization procedures for specific molecule detection and (4) system integration and measurement set-ups. The inherent challenges of implementing photonics-based biosensors to meet specific requirements of applications in medicine, food analysis, and environmental monitoring are discussed.

Silicon photonic micro-ring resonators (MRR) developed on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, owing to their high sensitivity and small footprint, show great potential for many chemical and biological sensing applications such as label-free detection in environmental monitoring, biomedical engineering, and food analysis. In this tutorial, we provide the theoretical background and give design guidelines for SOI-based MRR as well as examples of surface functionalization procedures for label-free detection of molecules. After introducing the advantages and perspectives of MRR, fundamentals of MRR are described in detail, followed by an introduction to the fabrication methods, which are based on a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Optimization of MRR for chemical and biological sensing is provided, with special emphasis on the optimization of waveguide geometry. At this point, the difference between chemical bulk sensing and label-free surface sensing is explained, and definitions like waveguide sensitivity, ring sensitivity, overall sensitivity as well as the limit of detection (LoD) of MRR are introduced. Further, we show and explain chemical bulk sensing of sodium chloride (NaCl) in water and provide a recipe for label-free surface sensing.

Label-free direct-optical biosensors such as surface-plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy has become a gold standard in biochemical analytics in centralized laboratories. Biosensors based on photonic integrated circuits (PIC) are based on the same physical sensing mechanism: evanescent field sensing. PIC-based biosensors can play an important role in healthcare, especially for point-of-care diagnostics, if challenges for a transfer from research laboratory to industrial applications can be overcome. Research is at this threshold, which presents a great opportunity for innovative on-site analyses in the health and environmental sectors. A deeper understanding of the innovative PIC technology is possible by comparing it with the well-established SPR spectroscopy. In this work, we shortly introduce both technologies and reveal similarities and differences. Further, we review some latest advances and compare both technologies in terms of surface functionalization and sensor performance.

This paper proposes a hybrid-waveguide ring resonator for on-chip biochemical sensing. Consisting of a low-loss strip-waveguide and a highly sensitive slot-waveguide integrated in a silicon photonic platform, it combines advantages of both waveguide types. In this way, it provides the unique feature to increase the sensitivity while maintaining low optical losses. Thus, this resonator structure may represent a promising alternative approach for future integrated biochemical sensing applications. This is suggested by a theoretical analysis, involving numerical simulation of the hybrid-waveguide ring resonator and an optimization of the slot-waveguide structure with regard to light-analyte-interaction. It is demonstrated that the hybrid-waveguide concept may overcome limitations in terms of overall resonator sensitivity, which is described by a figure of merit, connecting the optical losses with the resonator sensitivity.

Slot waveguide ring resonators appear promising candidates for several applications in silicon photonics. Strong field confinement, high device tunability, and low power consumption are beneficial properties compared with strip waveguides. Slot waveguide ring resonators suffer, however, from rather low optical quality factors due to optical losses. This letter proposes and experimentally demonstrates a novel concept based on a partially slotted ring and a strip-to-slot mode converter. An exceptional high quality factor of ${\sim }10^{5}$ has been measured.

This chapter deals with the basic concept of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) slot waveguides, including slot waveguide theory, fabrication steps, and applications. First, in the theory section, a modal field expression and the characteristic equation is derived, which is also valid for higher-order modes. SOI slot waveguide structures are simulated and characteristic values like the effective refractive indices and the field confinement factors are determined. The fabrication section describes typical SOI fabrication steps and the limits of current fabrication techniques. Additionally, developments regarding loss reduction in SOI slot waveguides are given from the fabrication point of view. This is followed by the theory and practice of slot waveguide based electro-optical modulators. Here, the SOI slot waveguide is embedded in an organic nonlinear optical material in order to achieve record-low voltage-length products. In the field of optical sensors, it is shown that slot waveguides enable remarkable waveguide sensitivity for both refractive index sensing and surface sensing.