Label-free high-sensitivity (bio)sensing with silicon structures and systems at the micro and nanoscale

When dealing with sensing of (bio)molecules the length scale of targets may vary over more than 2 orders of magnitude moving from elementary ions and molecules (0.1 to 1 nm) to complex proteins and virus (1 to 100 nm). A number of technologies have been proposed to prepare fluidic structures and systems with length scales enabling an effective interaction with the specific molecular target. Among these, electrochemical micro and nano structuring of silicon is increasingly attracting attention at research level for biosensing and microfluidics. In this talk, state-of-the-art research on silicon nano-micro structures and systems prepared by electrochemical etching for high-sensitivity (bio)sensing, among which, interferometers for ultra-high-sensitivity ion measurements in water, optical platforms for point-of-care clinical diagnostics, drop-and-measure photonic crystal systems for in-field optical biosensing, microneedles for transdermal biosensing, is presented and discussed.