Implantable sensor

摘要

A sensor is described for sensing a substance such as for example glucose. The sensor is implantable in the body of a living creature. The sensor comprises a photonic integrated circuit, e.g. silicon-photonics, based radiation processor for spectrally processing radiation interacting with the sample. A continuous monitoring system also is described using such a sensor.

主权项

1. A sensor configured to sense glucose, urea, or lactate, the sensor being implantable in the body of a living creature or an object and configured for sensing in tissue or bodily fluids, the sensor comprising:
an integrated radiation source configured for coupling radiation generated by said source into a silicon photonics integrated circuit for irradiating said tissue or bodily fluids having at least one of glucose, urea, or lactate in said tissue or bodily fluid, a silicon photonics integrated circuit configured to spectrally process the radiation interacting with the glucose or urea or lactate, wherein the silicon photonics integrated circuit comprises at least an integrated optical waveguide, an optical demultiplexer, and a detection element, said integrated optical waveguide being configured for receiving radiation from said integrated radiation source and to send the radiation to the demultiplexer, said waveguide comprising a part configured for evanescent sensing within a measurement region from which the radiation interacting with the glucose, urea, or lactate is captured by said waveguide and senses the glucose, urea, or lactate by an evanescent tail of the radiation, said optical demultiplexer being configured for spectrally processing the radiation to obtain spectrally resolved radiation said integrated detection element being configured to detect different absorption or reflection bands of the glucose or urea or lactate from the spectrally resolved radiation to sense the glucose or urea or lactate, wherein the silicon photonics integrated circuit and the measurement region are configured for sampling free spectral measurements so that sensing can be performed without the need for extracting a sample or guiding a substrate of interest in a forced manner to the measurement region, and wherein the radiation source and the silicon photonics integrated circuit form an integrated spectrometer, and wherein said sensor is configured to be implantable in the body of a living creature or an object to sense glucose, urea, or lactate.