Recent advances in the metamaterial-inspired biosensors

Abstract

Metamaterials (MM)-inspired microwave biosensors are a valuable addition to the field of diagnostic approaches and prognostic tools. The fundamental principle behind these biosensors is unique dielectric signatures corresponding to healthy/diseased tissues. Relying on nonionizing radiation and offering an increased resolution with accuracy comparable to that of ultrasound devices, they are an attractive solution for noninvasive and label-free biosensing applications. High-quality-factor MM-inspired resonators are integrated with microfluidics to accelerate the lab-on-chip and point-of-care diagnostic approaches owing to the small detection volume and overall compact size of these devices. A variety of biomolecular detection, glucose detection and hyperthermia treatment using state-of-the-art MM-inspired biosensors have been discussed. Optical transduction techniques (e.g., surface plasmon resonance) which enhance the sensitivity in terms of limit-of-detection and resolution, have also been outlined. Utilization of microwave biosensors as therapeutic agents is at its initial stages owing to lack of required sensitivity and reliability in recently proposed MM-inspired biosensors.

Keywords: Biosensor; Dielectric; Metamaterials; Microwave; Plasmon; Terahertz.