Method and apparatus for coupling a sample probe with a sample site
AssigneeGLT Acquisition Corp.
InventorsThomas B. Blank, Roxanne E. Abul-Haj
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention comprises method and apparatus for fluid delivery between a sample probe and a sample. The fluid delivery system includes: a fluid reservoir, a delivery channel, a manifold or plenum, a channel or moat, a groove, and/or a dendritic pathway to deliver a thin and distributed layer of a fluid to a sample probe head and/or to a sample site. The fluid delivery system reduces sampling errors due to mechanical tissue distortion, specular reflectance, probe placement, and/or mechanically induced sample site stress/strain associated with optical sampling of the sample.
Claims28
A sample probe configured to communicate with a non-invasive spectroscopic analyzer to determine an analyte property from a sample site of a body part, said sample probe comprising:
- a sample probe tip and a manifold within said sample probe terminating proximate said sample probe tip, said manifold configured to receive a coupling fluid from a fluid reservoir and comprising at least one fluid redirecting surface, said at least one fluid redirecting surface configured to dissipate kinetic energy of the coupling fluid as the coupling fluid is received from said fluid reservoir;
- and
- said sample probe tip comprising a first optic and at least one channel extending from said manifold and to a surface of said sample probe tip, said at least one channel configured to distribute the coupling fluid from said manifold to the surface of said sample probe tip, the surface of said sample probe tip forming a pathway for dispersion of the coupling fluid.
A method of delivering a coupling fluid to a sample site of a body part, the method comprising:
- delivering a coupling fluid from a fluid reservoir to a manifold within a sample probe, said manifold terminating proximate a sample probe tip of said sample probe and comprising at least one fluid redirecting surface, said at least one fluid redirecting surface configured to dissipate kinetic energy of the coupling fluid as the coupling fluid is received from said fluid reservoir;
- and
- delivering the coupling fluid from said manifold to a surface of said sample probe tip through at least one channel of said sample probe tip running transversely from said manifold and to the surface of said sample probe tip, the surface of said sample probe tip forming a pathway for dispersion of the coupling fluid, said sample probe tip comprising an optic,
- wherein said sample probe is configured to communicate with a non-invasive spectroscopic analyzer to determine an analyte property from a sample site.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.