A simple, convenient, and inexpensive method to fabricate optical fiber based biosensors which utilize periodic
hole arrays in gold films for signal transduction is reported. The process of hole array formation mainly relies on
self-assembly of hydrogel microgels in combination with chemical gold film deposition and subsequent transfer
of the perforated film onto an optical fiber tip. In the fabrication process solely chemical wet lab techniques are
used, avoiding cost-intensive instrumentation or clean room facilities. The presented method for preparing fiber
optic plasmonic sensors provides high throughput and is perfectly suited for commercialization using batch
processing. The transfer of the perforated gold film onto an optical fiber tip does not affect the sensitivity of the
biosensor ((420 ± 83) nm/refractive index unit (RIU)), which is comparable to sensitivities of sensor platforms
based on periodic hole arrays in gold films prepared by significantly more complex methods. Furthermore, realtime
and in-line immunoassay studies with a specially designed 3D printed flow cell are presented exploiting the
presented optical fiber based biosensors.