Polymer-on-glass waveguide structure for efficient fluorescence-based optical biosensors

A novel waveguide geometry for an integrated optics bio-sensor suitable for fluorescence detection is presented. In particular, we propose a polymeric waveguide realized on a glass substrate. This new geometry is aimed to an efficient evanescent-wave excitation of the fluorophores and subsequent collection of the fluorescence emission with no need of optical filters. The absence of any optical filters simplifies the device operation and permits to avoid the losses resulting from the use of the filter itself.