I am a final year Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD student at University of California, Santa Cruz. I work in the Applied Optics Group with my mentor Prof. Holger Schmidt. We build optofluidic bio-sensor chips using micron size single mode and multi mode optical waveguide systems. The devices are developed to perform multiplexed diagnostics mainly using wavelength division multiplexing techniques.

We start the development process by choosing the material base to fabricate the optical and fluidic components of the chip based on the required function of the sensor. I design the optical elements and the architecture of the chip using standard electromagnetic mode solvers (PhotonD) and CAD software such as AutoCAD. We send the design either to collaborating lab (better fabrication expertise, class-10 clean rooms) or I fabricate them at our facility. In the next step I build optical test setups and experiments to characterize different functions of the chips. Based on these tests, design changes and optimizations of the optical and microfluidic elements of the chips are made to improve the device performance (Change in project goals also motivate some design changes). I have used these fully functional chips for multiplexed detection of pathogens such as Zika nucleic and protein targets and Antibiotic resistant bacterial panel and single molecule detection of drug resistant plasmids.

For more details on my work please select one of the projects below:

Note: I have include only the fabrication steps of the device which I made.