PHOTOSENS · Large Area Photonic Crystal Chemical Sensors

The PHOTOSENS project aims to develop a low-cost, mass-manufacturable, nano-structured, large-area multi-parameter sensor array using Photonic Crystal (PC) and enhanced Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) methodologies for environmental and pharmaceutical applications. Integrating the PC and SERS based sensors with integrated optics coupling structures within a single sensor platform allows the implementation of a high-performance multi-parameter sensor. Currently, utilization of multi-parameter sensing is hindered by the lack of low-cost and, highly reproducibility fabrication methods for nano-structured surfaces. PHOTOSENS addresses these challenges by developing new roll-to-roll nanoimprinting manufacturing methods.Scientific work includes development of the multilayer nanophotonic sensor structure, nanoimprint materials for large-area fabrication, functionalized molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) and high-volume manufacturing methods including Roll-to-Roll (R2R) nanoimprint processes for nano-texturing of large-area plastic films. PHOTOSENS will greatly increase understanding of photonic and plasmonic dispersion and field localisation effects in periodic nanostructures, such as Photonic Crystals, and their applicability to sensing purposes. PHOTOSENS demonstrates a multi-parameter large-area sensor platform for environmental and pharmaceutical sensing. The consortium is composed of 4 world-class research organisations, 2 SMEs and 3 large companies from 6 European countries representing the complete supply chain from technology developers to end users. The position of these organizations in their respective markets guarantees that the results of the project will be widely exploited providing the companies with a technological advantage over their global competitors and thus creating new high-tech jobs in Europe in this rapidly growing market.