This has been a prolific area of research at IITBNF, encompassing a wide range of materials, device platforms and applications. Some of our research projects have successfully translated into products that impact critical areas such as public health, homeland security and agriculture. Technologies already developed here include a point of care sensor for detecting cardiac markers (“iSens”), a handheld device for explosive detection, a surface-plasmon-resonance based biosensor, a wearable web-enabled ECG monitoring device (“Silicon Locket”) and a soil moisture measurement unit.
Research in this field is strongly inter-disciplinary, bringing together groups from Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Bio-sciences and others. IITBNF houses full-fledged computer-aided-design (CAD) setups, fabrication tools and characterization facilities for micro/nano electromechanical (MEMS/NEMS) devices. Additionally, extensive work is being done on development of compound semiconductor based infrared (IR) photodetectors and Focal Plane Arrays (IRFPAs). Prototypes of 320x256 Quantum Dot Infrared Photodetector (QDIP) based IRFPA thermal imagers have been developed and demonstrated for the first time in India at IITBNF.
Some of current research interests include:
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Polymer based piezo-resistive microcantilever array and interfacing electronics for vapour-phase detection of explosive molecules – novel device and circuit designs to improve sensitivity & selectivity, development of sensor networks for deployment in public spaces |
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Polymer optical waveguide based biosensors, guided mode resonance filter based biosensors and microfabricated capacitive biosensors |
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Design & synthesis of organic semiconductors for chemical &/ environmental sensing |
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Design & synthesis of amplified fluorescent polymers for chemical &/ bio sensing |
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Chemical &/ environmental sensing using conducting polymer based organic field effect transistors (OFETs) |
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Integration of multiferroic materials into MEMS devices for sensor/actuator/energy-harvesting applications |
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Microfluidics – theory, experiments and applications of fluid flow & heat transport in microchannels; microfluidic flow cytometry with integrated optical detection & electronics; microfluidics for cell sorting; paperfluidics for affordable diagnostics |
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Design, develop, test and delivery of indigenous infrared focal plane arrays (IRFPAs) for thermal imaging |
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Development of mid-wave and long-wave IR photodetectors based on Type II InAs/GaSb superlattice technology |
Associated faculty:
V. Ramgopal Rao, Soumyo Mukherji, Anil Kumar, Dinesh Sharma, M. Shojaei Baghini, Amit Agrawal, Prasanna Gandhi, Debjani Paul, Pradeep Nair, Subhananda Chakrabarti
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