A multichannel surface plasmon resonance sensor using a new spectral readout system without moving optics

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors with spectral interrogation provide a high refractive index resolution, a large dynamic range and a fixed optical detection module. In this work, we propose a new multichannel spectral detection unit that uses only one spectrometer to measure the reflection spectrum from multiple sensing spots serially without any mechanical movement. This spectral detection unit is designed based on a spatial light modulator (SLM) configured as a programmable optical aperture for the spectrometer. To demonstrate this concept, a five-channel laboratory SPR prototype was built based on the proposed multichannel detection unit, and we evaluated the device's sensitivity and resolution using a refractive index test. Refractive index resolution of 1.4 × 10⁻⁶ refractive index units (RIU) can be reached using the five-channel prototype. This sensor is suitable for low-cost multichannel biosensing applications that do not contain fast kinetics.