The biosensor based on the total internal reflection imaging ellipsometry (TIRIE) is realized as an automatic analysis method for protein interaction processes in real-time, with high throughput and label-free. An evanescent wave is used as the optical probe to monitor bio-molecular interactions on a chip surface with a high sensitivity due to its phase sensitive property. In this paper, the technique is optimized with a polarization setting, a spectroscopic light source and a low noise CCD detector to improve the performance of the biosensor in sensitivity and detection limit, as evidenced by a quantitative detection of Hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HbsAg) with concentrations of 8, 16, 32, 64, 125 and 250 ng/ml. The sensitivity is increased by one order of magnitude and the detection limit has been extended more than 50 times for HbsAg detection. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.