Patent ID: 7212692

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: one or more optical channels, comprising a planar wave-guide based configuration and further comprising at least one Mach Zehnder (MZ) interferometer arrangement, wherein at least one of said optical channels includes a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor that further comprises: a substrate, a core layer, a cladding arranged to surround said core layer and operatively attached to said substrate, wherein said core layer and said cladding operate as a waveguide, a trench sensing area, further comprising, a first material, a metal layer operatively attached to said first material, a buffer layer operatively attached to said metal layer, a capture layer operatively attached to said buffer layer, and wherein a raised portion of said cladding defines a reservoir above said capture layer; wherein at least one of said optical channels includes a SPR sensor arranged as a reference sensor; and wherein an optical waveguide arrayed grating is capable of being operatively coupled to a predetermined sensor for spectral interrogation of an SPR response.