System and apparatus for body fluid analysis using surface-textured optical materials
First Claim
1. A sensor element for use in measuring characteristics of a body fluid, comprising:
- a supporting body;
an optical material body supported by the supporting body and having a surface-textured area and a light transit area;
an analyte-sensitive chemistry disposed upon the surface-textured area, the analyte-sensitive chemistry having at least one optical property sensitive to binding of an analyte thereto;
a body fluid sample receiving area, the surface-textured area being presented into the body fluid receiving area; and
a light coupling area, the light transit area of the optical material body being presented at the light coupling area;
wherein the surface-textured area comprises a field of projecting elongated optical structures providing an increased effective sensing area and supporting multiple ray reflections responsive to the optical property of the analyte-sensitive chemistry.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A variety of characteristics of body fluid may be measured by introducing a sample to a textured surface on optical material such as waveguides and sheets. The textured surface presents a field of elongated projections which are spaced apart to exclude certain components of the body fluid sample from entering into the spaces between the projections, while permitting other parts of the body fluid sample which contains the analyte to enter into those spaces. The analyte contacts a chemistry on the surface which is sensitive to the analyte, whereupon the analyte and the analyte-sensitive chemistry interact in a manner that is optically detectable. The optical material is packaged in suitable structures such as elongated cylinders, flat test strips, and sheets. A structure containing the optical material is mounted on a detector, which both illuminates the optical material and detects and analyzes the light that returns from the textured surface.
47 Citations
57 Claims
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1. A sensor element for use in measuring characteristics of a body fluid, comprising:
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a supporting body;
an optical material body supported by the supporting body and having a surface-textured area and a light transit area;
an analyte-sensitive chemistry disposed upon the surface-textured area, the analyte-sensitive chemistry having at least one optical property sensitive to binding of an analyte thereto;
a body fluid sample receiving area, the surface-textured area being presented into the body fluid receiving area; and
a light coupling area, the light transit area of the optical material body being presented at the light coupling area;
wherein the surface-textured area comprises a field of projecting elongated optical structures providing an increased effective sensing area and supporting multiple ray reflections responsive to the optical property of the analyte-sensitive chemistry. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A sensor array for use in measuring characteristics of body fluids, comprising:
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a plurality of surface-textured areas, each of the surface-textured areas being treated with an analyte-sensitive chemistry having at least one optical property sensitive to binding of an analyte thereto;
an array of body fluid sample receiving areas, the surface-textured areas respectively being presented into the body fluid receiving areas; and
an optical interrogation region for optically interrogating each of the surface-textured areas;
wherein each of the surface-textured areas comprises a field of projecting elongated optical structures providing an increased effective sensing area and supporting multiple ray reflections responsive to the optical properties of the analyte-sensitive chemistry. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
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33. A sensor for use in measuring characteristics of body fluids, comprising:
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a plurality of surface-textured areas, each of the surface-textured areas being treated with an analyte-sensitive chemistry having at least one optical property sensitive to binding of an analyte thereto;
a body fluid sample receiving area, the surface-textured areas respectively being presented into the body fluid receiving area; and
an optical interrogation region for optically interrogating each of the surface-textured areas;
wherein each of the surface-textured areas comprises a field of projecting elongated optical structures providing an increased effective sensing area and supporting multiple ray reflections responsive to the optical property of the analyte-sensitive chemistry. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A sensor for use in measuring a characteristic of body fluid, comprising:
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a sheet of optical material having first and second opposing major surfaces;
a surface-textured area formed in the first major surface of the sheet and treated with an analyte-sensitive chemistry having at least one optical property sensitive to binding of an analyte thereto; and
a light transit area formed in the second major surface of the sheet opposing the surface-textured area;
wherein the surface-textured area comprises a field of projecting elongated optical structures providing an increased effective sensing area and supporting multiple ray reflections responsive to the optical property of the analyte-sensitive chemistry. - View Dependent Claims (39)
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40. A system for measuring a characteristic of body fluid, comprising:
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a sensor section surface-textured area comprising a field of projecting elongated optical structures with an analyte-sensitive chemistry disposed thereupon, the analyte-sensitive chemistry having at least one optical property sensitive to binding of an analyte thereto, and the elongated optical structures of the surface-textured area providing an increased effective sensing area and supporting multiple ray reflections responsive to the optical property of the analyte-sensitive chemistry; and
a detector section, the sensor section being mounted on the detector section;
wherein the detector section comprises;
a light illumination subsystem optically coupled to the surface-textured area; and
a light detection subsystem optically coupled to the surface-textured area for detecting returned light from illumination of the surface-textured areas. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. A system for measuring a characteristic of body fluid, comprising:
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a sensor section having a plurality of surface-textured areas comprising respective fields of projecting elongated optical structures with analyte-sensitive chemistries disposed thereupon, the analyte-sensitive chemistries having optical properties sensitive to binding of analytes thereto, and the elongated optical structures providing an increased effective sensing area and supporting multiple ray reflections responsive to optical properties of the analyte-sensitive chemistries; and
a detector section, the sensor section being mounted on the detector section;
wherein the detector section comprises;
a light illumination subsystem optically coupled to the surface-textured areas;
a light collection subsystem optically coupled to the surface-textured areas for collecting returned light from the surface-textured areas; and
a light detector optically coupled to the light collection subsystem and responsive to the returned light for respectively detecting the light-influencing properties. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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55. A system for measuring a characteristic of body fluid, comprising:
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a waveguide having a surface-textured area disposed thereupon and an optical window disposed thereupon in optical proximity to the surface-textured area, the surface-textured area comprising a field of projecting elongated optical structures with an analyte-sensitive chemistry disposed thereupon, the analyte-sensitive chemistry having at least one optical property sensitive to binding of a analyte thereto, and the elongated optical structures providing an increased effective sensing area and supporting multiple ray reflections responsive to the optical property of the analyte-sensitive chemistry;
a light source optically coupled to one end of the waveguide; and
a detector section optically coupled to the optical window. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57)
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Specification