Role of presence of gold nanoparticles on enhancement of RF biosensing sensitivity

In this work, we explore the enhancement of sensitivity of sensing of biomolecules using Radio Frequency (RF) based sensing by utilizing gold particles. In particular, we investigate the impact of various parameters of gold particles such as shape, size and arrangements on enhancing sensitivity. The work uses a Microstrip Patch Antenna designed to resonate at 96.84 GHz. The sensor is facile, rapid and efficient and uses a sample volume of 17.5 nL. The results indicate that the presence of gold particles helps in improving the performance of RF sensors in detecting biomolecules. However, the extent of improvement depends on the properties of gold particles and is in the range of 30%-80% for the different cases studied in this work.