Near-field and far-field encoding of microbeads for bioassays
First Claim
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1. 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.
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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.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A microbead for bioassay comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for fabricating a plurality of polymeric microbeads comprising the steps of:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A reader for identifying at least one microbead comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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Specification