Resonant cavity photodiode array for rapid DNA microarray readout
First Claim
1. A microarray, comprising:
- a substrate having a plurality of micro-locations on a surface thereof, each of said micro-locations being capable of confining a photophore, and an array of optoelectronic photodetectors, each having a resonant cavity comprising at least a reflector having distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) structure, being optically coupled to said substrate surface such that each of said photodetectors is optically coupled to at least one of said micro-locations to detect radiation originating therefrom.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a microarray having a plurality of micro-locations for confining selected photophores, for example, biological molecules exhibiting fluorescence spectra. The microarray can further include an array of optoelectronic photodetectors each of which is optically coupled with at least one of the micro-locations to detect radiation, for example, fluorescence radiation, that is emitted from the photophores confined in that micro-location. Each photodetector includes a resonant cavity that is formed of a front reflector and/or a back reflector having distributed Bragg reflector structures and a photo-detecting element disposed in the resonant cavity. The microarray can utilize either external optical excitation sources, such as lasers, LEDs, or can contain its own excitation sources in an integrated structure containing both optical radiation emitters, such as, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers or resonant cavity LEDs, and resonant cavity photodetectors. The integrated emitters and detectors can be either coaxially or adjacently located. Further, the microarray can include either separate sample array and excitation/detector array plates, or a single sample/excitation/detector array plate in which the photophore-containing sample molecules can be deposited directly on the excitation/detector array.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A microarray, comprising:
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a substrate having a plurality of micro-locations on a surface thereof, each of said micro-locations being capable of confining a photophore, and an array of optoelectronic photodetectors, each having a resonant cavity comprising at least a reflector having distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) structure, being optically coupled to said substrate surface such that each of said photodetectors is optically coupled to at least one of said micro-locations to detect radiation originating therefrom. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 28)
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22. A bioanalytical microarray, comprising
a substrate having a plurality of micro-locations on a surface thereof, a plurality of biological molecules confined at said micro-locations, each biological molecule exhibiting a fluorescence spectrum, and a plurality of optoelectronic photodetectors having resonant cavity structures comprising at least a reflector having distributed Bragg reflector structures and being optically coupled to said substrate such that each photodetector detects any of fluorescence and luminescence radiation originating from the molecules confined at one of said micro-locations.
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29. A method of processing radiation generated by a plurality of photophores, the method comprising the steps of:
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disposing photophores on a plurality of micro-locations formed on a substrate surface, each micro-location being capable of confining at least one photophore type, and optically coupling a plurality of optoelectronic photodetectors having resonant cavity structures comprising a front reflector and a back reflector having distributed Bragg reflector structures to said substrate surface to detect radiation generated by said photophores such that each photodetector detects radiation originating from one of said micro-locations. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32)
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33. A microarray, comprising:
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a substrate having a plurality of micro-locations on a surface thereof, each of said micro-locations being capable of confining a photophore, and a plurality of optoelectronic photodetectors and emitters integrally formed in a single substrate and arranged as a plurality of emitter/detector pairs optically coupled to said micro-locations such that for each pair the emitter of the pair emits light for exciting photophores confined in at least one of said micro-locations and the detector of the pair detects radiation generated by the confined photophores in response to said excitation. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification