Integrated waveguide sensor utilizing organic photodiodes

Abstract We present a novel optical sensor platform, combining monolithically integrated ring-like sensor waveguides together with ring-shaped thin-film organic photodiodes (OPDs) on one substrate. The OPDs serve as integrated light detectors, simplifying the detection system by minimizing the number of required optical components. The waveguide structures, including a means of coupling light in and out of the waveguides, serve as sensing elements. The functionality of the concept is demonstrated by an integrated carbon dioxide sensor, utilizing absorbance as sensing principle. The integrated optical sensor platform is suitable for the parallel detection of multiple parameters in a single sensor chip using sensor arrays. (© 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)