Fixed optic sensor system and distributed sensor network
First Claim
1. A fixed optic sensor system for detecting one or more (bio)chemical properties of a sample analyte comprising:
- a sensor sub-system comprising an integrated miniaturized sensor having a sensor/sample surface in contact with the analyte and at least one light source and one detector interfaced in fixed relation to said sensing surface;
an electronic sub-system comprising an on-board signal processor, storage area, user interface and display functionally interfaced with each other to process, store and display information relating to the sample analyte; and
a communications sub-system communicably coupling the sensor sub-system to the electronic sub-system for receiving and transmitting sample data.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A fixed optic sensor system (200) comprising a sensor system (210), and electronic sub-system (205) and a communications means (215). The system can be used for detecting the presence of various sample (236) properties and in that regard has widespread application by leveraging off various miniaturized sensor configurations including surface plasmon resonance (50), fluorescence (80), light transmission (125) and others (150). In one embodiment, the communications means (215) is a wireless transmitter/receiver. In another embodiment, a hand held instrument (358) can be used on-site and communicates with the sensor (350) to receive sample (352) related data and transmit it to a remote processing system (370) for further analysis. In yet another embodiment, a hand held instrument (403) has a plurality of cardiac marker binding ligands (400) deposited on the sensor/sample interface providing a medical diagnosis and point-of-care device (403).
80 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A fixed optic sensor system for detecting one or more (bio)chemical properties of a sample analyte comprising:
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a sensor sub-system comprising an integrated miniaturized sensor having a sensor/sample surface in contact with the analyte and at least one light source and one detector interfaced in fixed relation to said sensing surface;
an electronic sub-system comprising an on-board signal processor, storage area, user interface and display functionally interfaced with each other to process, store and display information relating to the sample analyte; and
a communications sub-system communicably coupling the sensor sub-system to the electronic sub-system for receiving and transmitting sample data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
an on-board power source operably coupled to said processor, storage area, user interface and display for providing operation power;
a static memory area operably coupled to said processor; and
software embedded in said static memory area and providing a plurality of user control and sample related functions for operating the electronic sub-system and for analyzing and displaying sample related results.
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3. The sensor system according to claim 2 wherein said processor is an on-board microprocessor circuit and the system further includes an on-board analog to digital convertor circuit communicably coupled to said sensor sub-system via the communications sub-system for receiving sample related analog data, converting it to its digital bitstream form and relaying it to the microprocessor circuit for further processing.
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4. The sensor system according to claim 1 wherein said communications sub-system is a wireless radio frequency communications system.
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5. The sensor system according to claim 2 wherein said sensor sub-system further includes a sensor identification tag.
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6. The sensor system according to claim 2 wherein said electronics sub-system is self-contained in a hand held instrument enclosure.
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7. The sensor system according to claim 2 wherein said sensor sub-system is a surface plasmon resonance sensor having an SPR layer.
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8. The sensor system according to claim 2 wherein said sensor sub-system is a fluorescence-based sensor.
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9. The sensor system according to claim 7 wherein said electronic sub-system is self-contained in a hand held instrument enclosure and wherein said SPR layer is coated with one or more binding ligands.
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10. The sensor system according to claim 2 further including a remote processing system communicably interfaced with said electronics sub-system for receiving sample related data, said remote processing system operably equipped to analyze, store and process said data and control the operation of said sensor sub-system.
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11. An optically aligned sensor system for detecting the presence of one or sample analyte properties comprising:
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a miniaturized integrated sensor enclosed in a light transmissive housing having at least one surface in contact with said analyte and at least one light source and one detector fixed within said housing;
an electronic sub-system communicably interfaced to said sensor for receiving and transmitting sample related data, said sub-system having an on-board signal processor, static memory area containing a plurality of application specific program segments, a dynamic memory area, a display and a user interface; and
a communications sub-system coupling said sensor to said electronic sub-system. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of detecting a sample analyte using a fixed optic sensor system comprising a sensor sub-system that communicates with an electronic sub-system via a wireless communications, said method comprising the steps of:
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placing the sample in contact with the sensor sub-system;
directing light towards the interface between the sample and the sensor;
measuring the intensity of the light emerging from the interface between the sample and the sensor to produce an analog signal relating to the concentration of the sample;
converting the analog signal to a corresponding digital bitstream sequence;
transmitting the bitstream sequence to the electronic sub-system for further processing;
processing the sequence to obtain analytical information about the sample to obtain sample analyte results; and
displaying the results on an on-board display of the electronic sub-system.
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Specification