Optical process and apparatus for analysis of substances on sensor surfaces

Apparatus for analyzing substances on sensor surfaces comprising:

• (a) a sensor which possesses a surface to be brought into contact with the substance to be analyzed;
• (b) an optical wave guide layer structure;
• (c) a grating coupler in the layer structure for decoupling light waves guided in said layer structure;
• (d) an optical imaging system for imaging light waves decoupled by the grating coupler;
• (e) a position-resolving detector for detecting light waves resulting from the imaging and
• (f) a measuring device for measuring physical properties of the light waves.

A sensor for analyzing substances, comprising:

• (a) a sensor surface for contact with the substance to be analyzed,
• (b) an optical wave guide layer structure on the sensor surface,
• (c) a multi-diffractive grating coupler in the layer structure for decoupling a light wave guided in the layer structure, and
• (d) a cover layer applied to well-defined areas of the sensor surface.

An optical process for analyzing a substance on a sensor surface, which comprises:

• (a) generating guided light waves having a plane of propagation,
• (b) decoupling a portion of the guided light waves to produce decoupled light waves which propagate in a direction away from the plane of propagation of the guided light waves,
• (c) imaging the decoupled light waves,
• (d) measuring the physical properties of decoupled light waves, and
• (e) determining therefrom the quantity of the substance being analyzed.