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Immunoassay apparatus

  • US 4,909,990 A
  • Filed: 09/02/1987
  • Issued: 03/20/1990
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/02/1987
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. In apparatus for assaying a fluid sample and including a totally internally reflecting, elongated, substrate transmissive to excitation radiation directed at a proximal end of said substrate by an optical system;

  • which radiation, when propagated through said substrate, will provide an evanescent wave for exciting fluorescence in fluorescent material disposed at least on a portion of the surface of said substrate, said substrate also being transmissive to said fluorescence; and

    a hollow elongated enclosure spaced from and surrounding the surface of said substrate, the improvement comprising;

    mounting means couplable to said optical system and to said substrate and to said enclosure for mounting said substrate within said enclosure, said mounting means comprising;

    seat means spaced a fixed predetermined distance from said optical system when said mounting means is coupled to said optical system, for so releasably seating said proximal end in a preselected position fixed at least axially with respect to the long axis of said substrate and with respect to said optical system, that when said proximal end is seated in said seat means, substantially all of said excitation radiation entering said proximal end from said optical system at a solid angle less than or equal to a maximum acceptance angle determined in part by the refractive index of said sample, undergoes total internal reflection within said substrate.

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