Surface treatment and light injection method and apparatus
OwnerJudith Erb, James Downward, IVinventors
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Abstract
A biological sensor 10 having a beam/light shaper 30 which is adapted to inject light into the sensor at substantially the critical angle with respect to the side surface of the sensor. The sensor 10, of the preferred embodiment of the invention, further may undergo a surface treatment which reduces/eliminates non-specific binding to the sensor surface and a treatment process to reduce light energy losses occurring by mounting and/or inserting the fiber portion of the sensor into the medium of interest. Both the light injection and surface treatment methodologies have utility apart from the biological immunoassay sensor embodiment described and claimed in this Application and may be independently applied to a biological sensor.
Claims15
A biological sensor assembly for use in detecting the presence of a constituent of an immunochemical complex occurring in a certain medium, said sensor assembly being tagged with a fluorescent constituent and comprising:
- light energy generation means for generating light energy;
- an optical fiber having a surface to which a chemical from the group consisting of amorphous copolymers of perfluoro (2,2 dimethyl 1,3dioxole) and tetrafluoroethylene is applied, baked and subsequently and at least partially removed, said optical fiber being adapted to receive said generated light energy and to generate an evanescent energy field around said surface;
- means for focusing said light energy into said optical fiber;
- a second constituent of an immunochemical complex which is attached to said surface of said optical fiber and which forms an immunochemical complex with said fluorescently tagged constituent with said evanescent energy field to generate evanescent individual light energy;
- and
- detector means, in optical communication with said optical fiber, for receiving and detecting the presence of said evanescent light energy, and for using said detected evanescent light energy to determine the presence of said constituent occurring in said medium.
A fiber optic biosensor assembly for use in detecting, in a liquid medium, the presence of a constituent capable of forming an affinity complex,
- one member of said affinity complex bearing a tag which is fluorescent, said tagged member being added to the liquid containing the constituent the presence of which is to be detected by said biosensor assembly, said biosensor assembly comprising:
- a means for generating light energy;
- an optical fiber having a surface to which a chemical from the group consisting of amorphous copolymers of perfluoro (2,2 dimethyl--1,3 dioxole) and tetrafluoroethylene is applied to said optical fiber and baked and subsequently and at least partially being removed, said optical fiber being adapted to receive said generated light energy and to generate an evanescent energy field around said surface;
- a means for causing said generated light energy to enter said optical fiber:
- a second constituent of said affinity complex which is constrained to remain within 1000 angstroms (the effective distance of said evanescent field) of said surface of said optical fiber and which forms an affinity complex with said fluorescently tagged constituent within said evanescent energy field to generate fluorescence;
- a sensor cell which holds said optical fiber within a tube through which said liquid medium can be injected or flowed;
- and
- detector means, in optical communication with said optical fiber, for receiving and detecting the presence of said evanescent light energy, and for using said detected evanescent light energy to determine the presence of said constituent occurring in said liquid medium.
A fiber optic sensor made by the process of obtaining a fiberoptic fiber of the type having a TelfonAF coating;
- and
- removing at least a portion of said TelfonAF coating from a middle portion of said fiberoptic fiber by use of Fluorinert FC-75.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.