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Photonic Breakthrough Allows 'Lab-on-a-Chip'

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the smaller-and-cheaper dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Georgia Tech researchers have shrunk an optical device called wavelength demultiplier (WD) by combining into one crystal three unique properties of photonics crystals. This optical discovery opens the way to sophisticated and cheap bio-sensors mounted on 'lab-on-a-chip' devices -- sensors to run blood tests, detect chemicals in water supplies or for drug testing. Their new WD is less than a millimeter in all dimensions rather than the several centimeters of other currently available WDs. And it should not cost more to produce."

6 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Typo? by packeteer · · Score: 1, Informative

    And it should not cost more to produce."

    Cost less hopefully?

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  2. propagating typos by geeber · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's a "wavelength demultiplexer". It is wrong in the original article.

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  3. Demultiplexer not demultiplier by coinreturn · · Score: 5, Informative

    The error is in both the article summary and one place in the article. The proper term is "demultiplexer," not "demultiplier." A "demultiplier" is called a "divider."

  4. Very little that's new here by PhysicsPhil · · Score: 2, Informative

    The only thing that is interesting about this article is the fact that they've done it with photonic crystal waveguides. My own lab the same thing with silicon-on-insulator waveguides (not photonic crystals though). We are currently testing various biosensors, including a high-resolution (2 Angstrom target) spectrometer for interogating atomic spectra. On of our other designs has been shown to measure sugar concentrations in water, and we're moving to detecting actual biomolecules over the next few weeks.

    These guys have great PR but, like most scientific advances, the improvement is really only a tiny step.

  5. Re:"Allows"? it's already possible by amide_one · · Score: 2, Informative

    Every single school, from the community college on up, is going to do everything it can to convince its alumni, students, faculty, and benefactors that it's doing useful and important work. Even "MIT, CMU, Stanford, etc." issue the exact same kind of PR. It's necessary everywhere.

    The Bad Thing is confusing the explanation in the PR with the real research or discovery, or assuming that it's actually important because the school PR office thought it sounded neat. Which is how Roland Piquepaille wound up propagating the PR writer's mistake on the terminology ("demultiplier").

  6. Re:What is it about the "news" from Roland Piquepa by earthsound · · Score: 2, Informative

    For an interesting and informative article on the process, see PHOTONIC CRYSTALS: Demultiplexers harness photonic-crystal dispersion properties in Laser Focus World.