Terahertz Metamaterial Structures for Biomedical Sensing Applications

A new design of interdigitated E-shaped metamaterial sensor has been proposed. The structure has been intensively studied using CST software and is optimized to achieve ultrahigh sensitivity at the Terahertz range. Two different structures of the E-shaped sensors have been proposed. Both structures are characterized by a high absorption level at their resonant peaks with an ultra-high sensitivity towards the variation of the analyte refractive index. The structure with large spacing between the E-patches showed a higher quality factor compared to the other one which demonstrates its high potential for sensing applications. The design also performed very well in differentiating between healthy and malignant cells.

Objective/Contributions:

The main objective of this project is to design an ultrasensitive metamaterial absorber in the Terahertz band that can be used for biomedical sensing applications. For example, the developed sensors can be used to differentiate between healthy cells from malignant cells since these cells have different dielectric properties that affect the resonance location of the absorber. Another application for the biosensor is to detect the presence/absence of virus cells in the sample under investigation.