Analytica Chimica Acta 573574 (2006) 97103

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on silicon oxides for biosensor applications

Jongin Hong a, , Jung Sung Choi a,b , Gayoung Han a , Jae Kwang Kang c , Chang-Min Kim b , Tae Song Kim a , Dae Sung Yoon a
a b

Microsystem Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 39-1 Hawolgok-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Seoul, 90 Jeongnong-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea c K. C. Tech Co., 11F, Hyundai Swiss Tower Building, 143-40, Samsung-dong, Kangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea Received 30 November 2005; received in revised form 15 March 2006; accepted 5 April 2006 Available online 29 April 2006

Abstract Integrated optical devices have been increasingly interested in biosensor applications including environmental pollution, biological process and medical diagnostics. Integrated optics allows high-detection sensitivity to be achieved using optical transduction techniques in a microuidic format. Among different transduction techniques, a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) has advantage of its inherent high sensitivity and accuracy. The evanescent wave of an optical waveguide interacts with an adjacent layer, and this can be the basis of the recognition of biomolecules. In recent years, silicon dielectrics as potential materials have been attracted in an integrated optics. The refractive index of these silicon-based materials can be easily adjusted continuously over a wide range between 1.45 (SiO2 ) and 1.97 (SiO). This comes to be very attractive in terms of design and fabrication of single-mode waveguides. In this article, we tried to realize the Mach-Zehnder interferometer sensor based on silicon oxides, and the refractive index of the oxides was controlled by the oxygen concentration to achieve the single-mode behavior of a total internal reection (TIR) waveguide. We have performed to verify the feasibility of the MZI sensor for the direct detection of immunoreactions. 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Waveguide; Biosensor; Mach-Zehnder interferometer; Single-mode; Immunoreaction

1. Introduction For the last two decades, there has been an increasing interest in the development of biochemical sensors that are able to transform efciently a chemical or biological reaction into a measurable signal for healthcare, environmental pollution, medical diagnostics, military defense and biological processes. Among several transduction methods, optical transducers offer more attractive characteristics including higher sensitivity and immunity to electromagnetic interference. In the optical transducers, the chemical or biological reaction produces a change in the vicinity of a light path, such as a variation in an emission property, in an absorption coefcient or in a refractive index, and then this variation induces a change in the propagation properties of light. Several types of sensing mechanisms including surCorresponding author. Tel.: +82 958 5458; fax: +82 958 6910. E-mail addresses: kairduck@kist.re.kr (J. Hong), dsyoon@kist.re.kr (D.S. Yoon). 0003-2670/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aca.2006.04.045

face plasmon resonance (SPR), an input/output grating coupler and interferometers have been adopted for biochemical sensing applications [1]. Recently, the interferometer sensor based on evanescent eld sensing is a promising candidate in these applications because of higher sensitivity and an internal reference for compensation of thermal drifts and non-specic adsorptions. Initiated by the pioneering work of Tiefenthaler and Lukosz [2], the interferometer schemes using evanescent eld sensing have been used to directly monitor biological events at the waveguide surface. The emerged interferometers in biochemical applications are the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), the difference interferometer, the Young interferometer and the dual slab waveguide interferometer [24]. An optical waveguide is the fundamental building block of the interferometer sensor. It can serve as a sensing component when monitoring the variation in the vicinity of the waveguide, such as the change in the refractive index of outer medium or the formation of adsorption layers onto the waveguide surface. The important issue is to control the probing depth and distribution of the evanescent eld,

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which is a part of the guided light that extends outward into the media surrounding the waveguide. They can be modulated with waveguide congurations, such as the refractive index contrast, the core thickness or rib parameters. Thus, both materials used for the waveguide and design parameters will be very important to control the evanescent eld and to improve the sensitivity and performance of the interferometer sensor. A growing attention has been paid to silicon dielectrics as potential materials for the optical waveguide in broadband communications (telecom and datacom) [5,6]. This has been motivated mainly by the excellent optical properties including low absorption losses in the visible and near infrared and the desired characteristics of ber coupling. Also, the fabrication of silicon dielectrics is well established in the eld of standard silicon microelectronics. The refractive index of silicon oxides can be adjusted continuously over a wide range between 1.45 (SiO2 ) and 1.90 (SiO) in the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), which is a key technique for low cost mass production. It is suitable to fabricate the waveguide with a core thickness in order of several micrometers comparable to the commercial optical bers. In this article, we focused on the development of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on silicon oxides for mass production. A numerical simulation using a nite element method (FEM) was used to nd the boundary between single-mode and multi-mode as design parameters and the optical properties of silicon oxides were controlled by the ratio of oxygen to silicon to achieve the desired characteristics of the waveguide. These provided the guideline of the MZI based on silicon oxides, and we performed to verify the feasibility of the MZI sensor at the major telecom wavelength of 1550 nm for the direct detection of selective molecular interactions. 2. Experimental 2.1. Fabrication procedures Fig. 1 illustrates the microfabrication process of MachZehnder interferometers. The silica wafer (Ewafer Co., Korea) was cleaned with piranha solution (H2 SO4 :H2 O2 = 3:1) for 10 min. It was then rinsed in deionized (DI) water and blown dry with nitrogen gas. The non-stoichiometric silicon oxide as a waveguide core was deposited on the silica wafer at 250 C in a parallel-plate type Plasma Thermo 790 PECVD reactor. The refractive index of the core layer could be modulated with the ratio of oxygen to silicon. The ow rate of silane (2% SiH4 /H2 ) gas was kept constant at 150 sccm, and that of nitrous oxide (N2 O) gas was varied to adjust the refractive index for monomode waveguide. Rib waveguides for optical connement were dened using a photolithographic technique. The wafer was coated with the AZ4620 photoresist (Clariant, Muttenz, Switzerland) using a spin coater at 4000 rpm for 40 s, and then it was baked on a hot plate at 95 C for 2 min. The UV lithography was process using a mask aligner (MA6, Karl Suss, America Inc.) with an expose dose of 17 mW/cm2 . The photoresist (PR) was developed by immersing the exposed substrate in a developer solution (AZ300MIF, Clariant, Muttenz, Switzerland). The resulting patterns were then hard-baked on a hot plate 110 C

Fig. 1. Microfabrication process of Mach-Zehnder interferometers.

for 2 min to harden the unexposed PR. The pattern was transferred into the core layer using reactive ion etching (RIE). The upper cladding of silicon oxide was deposited on the patterned core layer using PECVD at 250 C. After the microfabrication of Mach-Zehnder interferometers, sensing zones were opened in one of the interferometer arms using RIE. Finally, the wafer was cut into an individual chip using an automatic dicing system and it was polished mechanically for end-re coupling. Fig. 2 shows the layout of an integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer containing pictures of a Y-junction and a sensor in the fabricated MZI. 2.2. Optical characterization The refractive index of non-stoichiometric silicon oxides was measured by a prism coupler (Model 2010, Metricon Co., USA). The compositional and structural properties of the core layer were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. FTIR spectroscopy was used as a nondestructive technique to obtain the direct information about the compositional properties of the grown layers, the types of chemical bonds present and their impurity content and concentration. The spectral positions of the absorption bands correspond to the vibrational frequencies of the molecular species present in the lms and their intensity does to the concentration of such species. Fig. 3 depicts the experimental set-up for optical measurements. The optical characterization was performed with transverse magnetic (TM) waves from a stabilized laser diode ( = 1550 nm). TM mode may be more suitable to monitor the biological events because TM mode is suffered by the surface

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2.3. Surface functionalization In order to determine the direct detection of selective molecular interactions, the interferometer had to be functionalized at its surface by a thin layer that exposes selected binding sites to the complementary analyte in the aqueous phase. We selected the binding of streptavidin to its ligand biotin, which was easily coupled to other linker molecules not involved in the recognition and binding reaction. Because streptavidin binds biotin with high afnity (Keq = 1013 M1 ) and the 222 point symmetry of the streptavidin homotetramer positions two pairs of biotin binding sites on opposite faces of the protein. Firstly, the surface of the MZI sensor was functionalized using silanization procedures [7] using N-[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]ethylenediamine (SigmaAldrich, UK) to provide free amine at the sensor surface. The aminated surface was rinsed with phosphate buffer solution (PBS), and then Sulpho-NHS-LC-biotin (Pierce, Cheshire, UK) dissolved in PBS incubated on the amine surface for a period of 10 min. The biotinylated surface was rinsed in PBS and dried under a stream of nitrogen. Finally, the streptavidin (Sigma, UK, 1 g/ml) dissolved in PBS was perfused over the biotinylated surface to evaluate the feasibility of the MZI sensor for labelfree detection. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Principle and design state more than transverse electric (TE) mode. The light was coupled into the waveguide through a single-mode ber (SMF) with a mode-eld diameter of 9 m. The optical ber was placed in straight line to preserve the input TM-polarization, and the end of SMF was placed in front of the waveguide core to couple light into the MZI (end-re coupling). Light was collected by a multimode ber connected to an optical powermeter (ML9001A, Anritsu Co., Japan). The intensity of output light was monitored by homemade software and data acquisition hardware (USB-6009, National Instruments Co., USA). Precise translation stages were used for the accurate alignment of all the components. Alternatively, a microscope objective (40) and an IR Vidicon camera were used to record the near-eld pattern at the end of the MZI that showed the modal behavior of the fabricated waveguide. The building block of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer is the optical waveguide of total internal reection (TIR). TIR indicates the connement of light in the material surrounded by other materials with lower refractive indices. Although, the light is conned within the core of the wavelength, there is a part of the guided light that travels through that extends into the medium surrounding the waveguide (called the evanescent eld). This evanescent eld interacts with the surrounding environment. The biomolecular interaction between a receptor on the waveguide surface and its complementary analyte produces the change in optical properties of the interface and in dimensions of an adsorbed layer. Therefore, we have chosen an interferometric method based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer to detect this variation. In this conguration, an optical waveguide is split

Fig. 2. Layout of an integrated MZI and pictures of a Y-junction and a sensor in the fabricated MZI.

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of an optical measurement system.

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into two arms and after a certain distance they recombine again. The waveguide is completely covered with a cladding layer and the only sensing zone is exposed to the outer medium in a certain area. The interference of light traveling through two arms of the interferometer causes the intensity modulation at the sensor output. The oscillating relationship between the in-coupled intensity Iin and the out-coupled intensity Iout can be expressed as [8,9] Iout [1 + V cos( + Iin 0 )] (1)

where V is the visibility factor, = (R S ) the phase shift between guided modes in the reference and sensor arm and 0 an arbitrary relative phase due to possible inequalities of the optical path lengths of the two arms. The visibility factor indicates the contrast of the interference signal, the difference between maximum and minimum intensities and it depends on the splitting ratios of the input and output Y-coupler and on the propagation losses of the guided mode in the interferometer arms. The phase shift is expressed as [8,9] = 2 L N (2)

where L is the length of the sensor area, the wavelength and N is the change in the effective refractive index produced by the variation in the properties of the outer medium. The phase shift can be measured with a resolution of [ ]min = 2g in the MZI. The factor g depends on the experimental measurement techniques and has a value of (15) 103 in all sensor congurations [10]. To develop the reproducible MZI sensor, the optical waveguide should be the single-mode. If several modes are propagated via the waveguide, the optical power is divided among the modes and each mode interacts with the variations of the outer medium. The conveyed information is liable to mutual interference. The multi-mode waveguide is not suitable in terms of reproducibility because the fraction of power transferred from the light source to each mode varies with the degree of correlation between the source distribution and the mode distribution. The rib waveguide is also considered to achieve a lateral connement of light for core thicknesses in the order of several micrometers that are comparable to the core of single-mode commercial optical bers. A relatively large core dimension is efcient to reduce the insertion losses for direct coupling with the optical bers. In addition, Lukosz [10] mentioned that it was not necessary to use very thin high-index waveguide lms in the interferometric sensors. Because the optical sensitivity Neff /ncore for both TE and TM modes monotonically approaches the value of one as the core thickness increases. However, thick cladding layers are required to reduce propagation losses because of the penetration of the evanescent eld into the lossy substrate (e.g. Si and GaAs). This results in the longer fabrication process and the stress in a multilayered structure. One of solutions is the usage of the silica substrate with excellent optical properties and low thermal conductivity. In this article, the MZI conguration on silica substrate must be designed to fulll two requirements: single-mode and a core thickness of several micrometers.

Fig. 4. FEM simulation as a function of design parameters.

A numerical simulator (CFD ACE+ , CFD Research Corporation, USA) using a nite element method based on the partial difference equations is used to nd the boundary between cutoff, single-mode and multi-mode regions. Because single-mode behavior depends on the core thickness, the width and depth of the rib waveguide and the refractive index contrast between the core and the cladding layers. The simulation was set-up using the waveguide structure shown in Fig. 4, which is a rib waveguide of silicon oxide (ncore ) on silica (ns = 1.458) and has an upper cladding that is PECVD SiO2 (nc = 1.451). The simulations were repeated with different values of the refractive index of core and the width (W) and depth (D) of the rib waveguide at

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a wavelength of 1.55 m for TM polarization. The criteria for transmitting through the waveguide are as follows. ncore > Neff(m) > ns , nc m = 1, 2, 3, . . . (3)

Table 1 Refractive indices and the ratio of oxygen to silicon as a function of N2 O gas ow rate N2 O gas ow rate Refractive index O/Si 100 1.46210 1.76523 200 1.46067 1.82685 300 1.45646 1.83471

where Neff(m) is the effective refractive index of the guided mode m. Fig. 4 also shows the modal behavior of the rib waveguides as design parameters. The permitted refractive index of core for single-mode propagation increased as the decrease in the width and the increase in the etching depth. The cut-off region implies that TM waves cannot be guided by the rib waveguide. A structure close to the transition condition of a mode has relatively high Neff and then the evanescent eld penetrates into the sensing medium deeply. It is extremely sensitive to the change in the distribution of refractive index and the better surface sensitivity can be achieved by the higher index contrast. For sensing applications, the design parameters must be optimized in such a way that a large fraction of the guided mode travels through the sensing medium. Therefore, the nally chosen rib waveguide has the following structure at the operating wavelength of 1550 nm for TM polarization: a silica substrate (ns = 1.458); a non-stoichiometric silicon oxide (SiOx ) with the overall height of 4 m; its refractive index between 1.4648 and 1.4734; a PECVD SiO2 with the thickness of 1.5 m (nc = 1.451). Because of the minimum feature size of UV photolithography and the uniformity of the dry etching process, the width and depth of rib structure are 5 and 1 m to assure single-mode behavior, respectively. 3.2. Refractive index and FTIR characterization The refractive index of silicon oxides can easily be adjusted continuously over a wide range between 1.45 (SiO2 ) and 1.97 (SiO). The incorporation of hydrogen and nitrogen into the lms, which are grown using PECVD, results in the change in their stoichiometry. Both SiH4 and N2 O gases are commonly used for the deposition of silicon oxides in PECVD, and the ow ratio R = [N2 O]/[SiH4 ] determines the resulting oxide stoichiometry. The refractive index and the ratio of oxygen to silicon as a function of the ow ratio are listed in Table 1. The increase in the ow ratio resulted in the decrease in the refractive index of silicon oxides, which is close to that of stoichiometric SiO2 . We speculate that high ow ratio increased a large amount of oxygen and then small nitrogen was incorporated into the lms. High refractive index of silicon oxides indicates that the lm

Fig. 5. Infrared absorption spectra as a function of N2 O ow rate for silicon oxide.

is relatively silicon rich, and this coincides with the compositional analysis using wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDXS). Therefore, the desired silicon oxides for single-mode optical waveguide can be fabricated with the control of the ow ratio in PECVD. Fig. 5 shows the infrared absorption spectra as a function of the ow ratio R for PECVD oxides. The vibration type and peak frequency are listed in Table 2. Four main absorption bands existed at around 1250 cm1 due to Si O asymmetric stretching, 1100 cm1 due to Si O symmetric stretching, 750 cm1 due to Si O bending and 470 cm1 due to Si O rocking. Among them, the Si O stretching bands are very useful for investigating silicon oxides. Their vibration frequencies are inuenced by the bonding character, strain/stress, stoichiometry, density and porosity of SiOx lms [6,1113]. We observed that the Si O symmetric stretching band shifted to lower wave numbers as the decrease in the ow ratio. This resulted from the decrease in the

Table 2 Infrared vibrations and peak frequencies in the lms of silicon oxides SiO2 (cm1 ) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) Si O rocking Si O bending Si H bending Si O symmetric stretching Si O asymmetric stretching Adsorbed water Si H stretching N H stretching SiO H stretching 478.25 819.59 1124 1228.23 R = 300/150 (cm1 ) 466.68 750.17 879.38 1101.15 1253.5 1509.99 2163.74 R = 200/150 (cm1 ) 466.68 748.24 881.3 1099.22 1253.5 1494.56 2140.6 Around 3400 Around 3800 R = 100/150 (cm1 ) 466.68 744 883.23 1099.22 1253.5 1494.56 2138.67

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ratio of oxygen to silicon in the oxide lms. The Si O asymmetric stretching band in PECVD oxides extended up 1250 cm1 , and this feature might be related to structural disorder and/or defects within the oxides in the low-temperature deposition process [13]. Si H bending and stretching bands were observable for PECVD oxides at around 880 and 2150 cm1 , respectively. The absorption bands at high frequencies between 3000 and 3800 cm1 are usually attributed to O H stretching modes due to SiOH or adsorbed water and N H stretching mode due to reactant species [6,11,12]. The absorption band at 1500 cm1 may be due to absorbed water (H2 O) [11]. We speculate that the hydrogen existing in the lm tends to form bonds with silicon or nitrogen as the ow ratio decreases. The absorption band of N H stretching is of special interest for optical waveguide in broadband communications because it is the main cause of the optical absorption at 1.55 m wavelength [14,15]. The N H stretching vibration must be reduced to enhance the performance of the MZI based on silicon oxides, but this takes us beyond the scope of this article. 3.3. Feasibility of MZI biochemical sensors Before evaluating the feasibility of MZI sensor for the direct detection of selective molecular interactions, we analyzed the modal behavior of the fabricated MZI sensor by recording the near-eld pattern of light at the output. Fig. 6 shows the simulated and observed TM mode proles at the operating wavelength of 1.55 m. The fabricated waveguide was proven to exhibit the single-mode operation to TM polarization and the

Fig. 7. Detection of the specic molecular interaction between NHS-LC-Biotin and streptavidin.

Fig. 6. Single-mode propagation of a ridge TIR waveguide: (a) a FEM simulation and (b) a near-eld pattern.

lateral connement of light. As an example for biosensor applications, we selected the binding of streptavidin to its ligand biotin with high afnity in order to prevent the effect of nonspecic binding on the sensor performance. Vctor et al. reported that biotin blocked streptavidin did not adsorb to any of the self-assembled monolayers [16]. It indicates that the adsorption proceeded only through the specic interaction between the biotin binding sites of streptavidin and surface-immobilized biotins. The MZI sensor with an interaction length of 500 m was used to evaluate the feasibility. The sensor surface was previously modied by a biotinylation functionalization to bind the streptavidin molecules at nanometer scale. NHS-LC-Biotin is a relatively small molecule (MW = 557 g/mol) with a relatively short but exible linkage (2.24 nm in length) and increases the surface thickness of about 0.5 nm. On the contrary streptavidin is a relatively rigid molecule and the reported diameter across the short axis of the molecule is 5.6 nm [17,18]. Output signal for the binding of streptavidin on the biotinylated surface is shown in Fig. 7. The streptavidin dissolved in PBS with a concentration of 1 g/ml was introduced on the sensor surface. We observed that the phase change was fast in the rst part of the process and then the phase response was slower as the surface became progressively occupied. The total phase change was about 0.9 due to the specic binding between biotin and streptavidin in the MZI sensors with the interaction length of 500 m. The output intensity of the MZI sensors decreases by 50% within 6 min. Busse et al. [19] reported that the injection of a 106 M streptavidin solution (in 0.5M NaCl) caused an intensity modulation corresponding to 6 in the MZI sensors with a core material of siliconoxynitride (SiON) and an interaction length of 12 mm. And Prieto et al. [9] reported that the phase change was 10 in the MZI sensors with a core material of silicon nitride (Si3 N4 ) and an interaction length of 15 mm after a concentration of 10 g/ml of the antibody (LB-CNH) for immunoreaction was injected on the sensor surface. The MZI based on silicon oxides with a large core thickness was superior to the MZI based on high refractive index materials (e.g. SiON and Si3 N4 ). Because the ratio of the phase change to the interaction length in our MZI

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(=18 cm1 ) was higher than those in the SiON-based MZI (=5 cm1 ) and in the Si3 N4 -based MZI (=6.67 cm1 ). Therefore, we conrmed that the MZI-based silicon oxides were feasible to detect the direct detection of selective molecular interactions, especially the interaction between biotin and streptavidin, at the major telecom wavelength of 1550 nm. 4. Conclusions We have developed the Mach-Zehnder interferometer sensor based on silicon oxides for mass production, and the refractive index of the waveguide core was accurately controlled by the ow ratio R = [N2 O]/[SiH4 ] to achieve the single-mode behavior of an optical waveguide. The design parameters, such as a core thickness, a rib width and depth and the index contrast, were determined using a FEM simulation, and the fabricated MZI sensor exhibited single-mode behavior. We have presented the feasibility of the MZI sensor for the direct detection of immunoreactions. The total phase change was about 0.9 due to the specic binding of streptavidin with a concentration of 1 g/ml on the biotinylated sensor surface in the fabricated MZI sensor. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Sung Kwan Kim and Hanjong Paik at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) for fruitful discussions about the optical properties of silicon oxides and WDXS analysis. We would also like to thank Ho Min Byun and Gil Sun No at the Micro-Nano Fabrication Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) for helps about microfabrication including PECVD and RIE. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Protein Chip Technology Research Center and 21C Frontier R&D Program). References
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[8] B. Maisenholder, H.P. Zappe, R.E. Kunz, P. Riel, M. Moser, J. Edlinger, Sens. Actuators B 3839 (1997) 324. [9] F. Prieto, B. Sepulveda, A. Calle, A. Llobera, C. Dominguez, A. Abad, A. Montoya, L.M. Lechuga, Nanotechnology 14 (2003) 907. [10] W. Lukosz, Biosens. Bioelectron. 6 (1991) 215. [11] A. Slaoui, E. Fogarassy, C. Fuchs, P. Siffert, J. Appl. Phys. 71 (2) (1992) 590. [12] B. Daz, J.A. Rodrguez, M. Riera, A. Llobera, C. Domguez, J. Tutor, Microelectron. J. 35 (2004) 65. [13] P. Lange, J. Appl. Phys. 66 (1989) 201. [14] K. Worhoff, P.V. Lambeck, A. Driessen, J. Lightwave Technol. 17 (1999) 1401. [15] B.S. Sahu, O.P. Agnihotri, S.C. Jain, R. Mertens, I. Kato, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 15 (2000) L11. [16] H. P rez-Luna Vctor, J. OBrien Michael, A. Opperman Kimberly, D. e Hampton Philip, P. L pez Gabriel, A. Klumb Lisa, S. Stayton Patrick, o J. Am. Chem. Soc. 122 (1999) 6469. [17] L. Pugliese, A. Coda, M. Malcovati, M. Bolognesi, J. Mol. Biol. 231 (1993) 698. [18] P.C. Weber, D.H. Ohlendorf, J.J. Wendoloski, F.R. Salemme, Science 243 (1989) 85. [19] M. Weisser, G. Tovar, S. Mittler-Neher, W. Knoll, F. Brosinger, H. Freimuth, M. Lacher, W. Ehrfeld, Biosens. Bioelectron. 14 (1999) 405. Jongin Hong received his BS and MS degrees in material science and engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), in February 1999 and February 2002, respectively. He obtained his PhD diploma, which was entitled Design and Characterization of Electrochemical Impedance Biosensors for Microuidic Devices, with interdisciplinary program for nano science and technology at the KAIST in February 2005. During his PhD dissertation, he has assisted the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in forging ahead in new and unexplored areas, where unexpected and potentially revolutionary advances in biosensors form microchip platforms await discovery. He is currently working on the development of integrated optic biosensors and optical measurement systems as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Microsystem Research Center of the KIST. His research interests include bio-nano/microelectromechanical systems (BioN/MEMS), interdisciplinary studies on nanotechnology and biotechnology, and functional materials. Jung Sung Choi received his BS and MS degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Seoul, Korea, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. In March 2005 he joined the Microsystem Research Center of the KIST and assisted the development of the integrated optic sensors for biosensing applications. Dae Sung Yoon received the BS degree in ceramic engineering from the Yonsei University in 1991 and PhD degree in materials science and engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 1996. He was a post-doctoral associate studying nano-biosensor at the department of materials science and engineering, University of Pennsylvania, from 1990 to 2000, and a principal research scientist studying BioMEMS and nano-biosensor at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), from 1996 to 2003. He is currently a senior research scientist at Microsystem Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Seoul. His research interests include nano-biosensor, BioMEMS/NEMS and bio-materials.