Near-field and far-field encoding of microbeads for bioassays
OwnerDaniel B. Roitman, Kevin P. Killeen +1inventors
InventorsDaniel B. Roitman, Kevin P. Killeen, Annette C. Grot
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Abstract
An encoded patterned microbead of polymeric material capable of linking to a ligand molecule, a process for fabricating patterned microbeads, a reader to read the patterned microbead, and methods to produce the patterned microbead are disclosed. A unique identifier is written to the encoded patterned microbead according to one of several well-known techniques. A reader of the present invention, as well as conventional readers, read the encoded patterned microbeads.
Claims25
A microbead for bioassay comprising:
- polymeric microbead material;
- a pattern encoded on at least one level of the microbead;
- and
- means associated with the microbead for permitting chemical conjugation between the microbead and a ligand.
A method for fabricating a plurality of polymeric microbeads comprising the steps of:
- creating a master substrate having at least one pattern, the at least one pattern having at least one level of pattern depth;
- applying polymeric microbead material to the patterned master substrate to form a plurality of patterned polymeric microbeads;
- releasing the polymeric microbead material from the master substrate;
- and
- partitioning the polymeric microbead material to form the plurality of polymeric microbeads.
A reader for identifying at least one microbead comprising:
- means for projecting a beam of light at a preselected angle onto the at least one microbead;
- and
- a detector array capable of detecting an image created by said beam of light diffracted from the at least one microbead, said detector array recording said image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.