Biosensors based on optical probing and sensing

• US 9,846,126 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2009
• Issued: 12/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Genalyte, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Genalyte, Inc.
• Inventors: Gunn, III, Lawrence Cary, Iqbal, Muzammil, Spaugh, Brad, Tybor, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Turk, Neil N
• Application Number:
  US13/126,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20120092650A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,975 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/255 Details, e.g. use of specially adapted sources, lighting or optical systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/39 using tunable lasers
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/648 using evanescent coupling or surface plasmon coupling for the excitation of fluorescence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/7746 the waveguide coupled to a cavity resonator
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/54373 involving physiochemical end-point determination, e.g. wave-guides, FETS, gratings
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/54393 Improving reaction conditions or stability, e.g. by coating or irradiation of surface, by reduction of non-specific binding, by promotion of specific binding
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2006/12097 Ridge, rib or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2006/12138 Sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/29338 Loop resonators
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/34 utilising prism or grating G02B6/293 takes precedence

Abstract

Apparatus, sensor chips and techniques for optical sensing of substances by using optical sensors on sensor chips.

Claims

1. A sensing device based on optical probing and sensing, comprising:

a tunable laser that produces a laser beam of probe light and operates to tune a wavelength of the probe light over different wavelengths;

a chip platform that holds at least one sensor chip under measurement, the sensor chip comprising a substrate, one or more optical sensors formed on the substrate, an input optical coupler formed on the substrate to receive incoming probe light and to direct the probe light to a respective optical sensor, and an output optical coupler formed on the substrate to couple light from the respective optical sensor out of the substrate as returned probe light, the output coupler being configured to output the returned probe light in a direction that is different than the direction of the specular reflection of the incoming probe light from the sensor chip and that is along a reciprocal path of the incoming probe light;

an optical system that projects and scans the probe light over the chip platform to optically interrogate optical sensors on the sensor chip, the optical system comprising one or more scanning mirrors connected to one or more corresponding actuators that move the one or more scanning mirrors, the one or more actuators being in communication with a controller configured to provide one or more control signals which cause the one or more actuators to move the one or more scanning mirrors so as to direct the incoming probe light toward, or to receive the returned probe light from, the one or more optical sensors, the optical system further comprising an objective lens oriented relative to the chip platform to deliver the incoming probe light to the input coupler at an angle to render specular reflection of the probe light from the sensor chip outside an optical aperture of the objective lens and to receive the returned probe light from the sensor chip at the direction that is different from the specular reflection of the probe light from the sensor chip; and

an optical detector in communication with the optical system to receive a portion of the returned probe light and to detect responses of the one or more optical sensors on the sensor chip over different wavelengths of the tunable laser.

2. The device as in claim 1, comprising:

a second optical detector in communication with the optical system to receive a portion of the returned probe light and to detect an optical signal embedded in the returned probe light containing identification codes of different optical sensors on a sensor chip.

3. The device as in claim 2, comprising:

a beam splitter in the optical system that splits the returned probe light from an optical sensor on the chip platform into a first portion of the returned probe light that is received by the optical detector and a second portion of the returned probe light that is received by the second optical detector.

4. The device as in claim 1, comprising:

a spatial filter located in an optical path of the portion of the returned probe light received by the optical detector to spatially filter the portion of the returned probe light to direct a selected portion into the optical detector that is generated from an optical sensor and contains information of the optical sensor while rejecting light that does not contain information of the optical sensor.

5. The device as in claim 1, wherein:

the controller synchronizes scanning of the probe light by the optical system and the tuning of the tunable laser to obtain measurements at the optical detector of the probe light of an optical sensor over the different wavelengths of the tunable laser.

6. The device as in claim 1, comprising:

a wavelength reference that receives and detects a portion of the probe light from the tunable laser to calibrate wavelengths of the probe light of the tunable laser.

7. A sensing device based on optical probing and sensing, comprising:

a tunable laser that produces a laser beam of the probe light and operates to tune a wavelength of the probe light over different wavelengths;

a chip platform that holds at least one sensor chip under measurement, the sensor chip comprising a substrate, optical sensors formed at different locations on the substrate that receive probe light and produce returned probe light, and separate optical identification markers formed on the substrate at locations in proximity to respective optical sensors in one-to-one correspondence therewith to uniquely associate different optical identification markers with the respective optical sensors, said different optical identification markers structured to have unique codes for identifying the respective optical sensors and optically interacting with the probe light to produce returned identification light carrying the codes;

an optical system that projects and scans the probe light over the chip platform to optically interrogate optical sensors on the sensor chip, and receives returned probe light from the sensor chip, the optical system including one or more scanning mirrors connected to one or more corresponding actuators that move the one or more scanning mirrors, the one or more actuators being in communication with a controller configured to provide one or more control signals which cause the one or more actuators to move the one or more scanning mirrors so as to direct the probe light toward, or to receive the returned probe light from, the optical sensors and the optical identification markers, the optical system further comprising a beam splitter that splits the returned probe light into a first portion and a second portion;

a first optical detector in communication with the optical system to receive the first portion of the returned probe light and to detect responses of optical sensors on the sensor chip over different wavelengths of the tunable laser; and

a second optical detector in communication with the optical system to receive the second portion of the returned probe light and to detect at least identification codes of different optical identification markers.

8. The device as in claim 7, comprising:

a spatial filter located in an optical path of the first portion of the returned probe light to spatially filter the first portion of the returned probe light to direct a selected portion into the first optical detector that is generated from an optical sensor and contains information from the optical sensor while rejecting light that does not contain information from the optical sensor.

9. The device as in claim 7, wherein:

the controller synchronizes scanning of the probe light by the optical system and the tuning of the tunable laser to obtain measurements at the first optical detector of the probe light of an optical sensor over the different wavelengths of the tunable laser.

10. The device as in claim 7, comprising:

a wavelength reference that receives and detects a portion of the probe light from the tunable laser to calibrate wavelengths of the probe light of the tunable laser.

11. A method for optical sensing, comprising:

directing probe light from a tunable laser via free space at a first time to a first optical sensor on a sensor chip via a first input optical coupler on the sensor chip, the first input optical coupler receiving incoming probe light and directing the probe light to the first optical sensor;

collecting returned probe light from the first optical sensor via a first output optical coupler on the sensor chip, the first output optical coupler being configured to output the returned probe light in a direction that is different from the specular reflection, and is along a reciprocal path, of the incoming probe light at the first input optical coupler, wherein collecting the returned probe light from the first optical sensor is done while rejecting the specular reflection of the incoming probe light by collecting the returned probe light at the angle that is different from the specular reflection of the incoming probe light;

obtaining a response from the first optical sensor while tuning the tunable laser over different wavelengths of the tunable laser;

spatially scanning the probe light to optically address a second optical sensor on the sensor chip at a second time, wherein spatially scanning the probe light comprises using a controller to provide one or more control signals to one or more actuators, the one or more actuators being connected to one or more corresponding scanning mirrors, the one or more control signals causing the one or more actuators to move the one or more scanning mirrors so as to direct the probe light toward, or to receive the returned probe light from, the second optical sensor;

obtaining a response from the second optical sensor while tuning the tunable laser over different wavelengths of the tunable laser; and

processing the responses from the first and second optical sensors with a processing unit to measure one or more substances attached to the first and second optical sensors.

12. The method as in claim 11, further comprising:

obtaining identification information of the first and second optical sensors from the returned probe light.

13. A sensing device based on optical probing and sensing, comprising:

a tunable laser that produces a laser beam of the probe light and operates to tune a wavelength of the probe light over different wavelengths;

a chip platform that holds at least one sensor chip under measurement, the sensor chip comprising a substrate and optical sensors formed at different locations on the substrate that receive probe light and produce returned probe light, the optical sensors comprising ring waveguides that produce one or more resonances when interrogated with probe light over different wavelengths;

an optical system that projects the probe light over the chip platform to optically interrogate optical sensors on a sensor chip, the optical system including one or more scanning mirrors connected to one or more corresponding actuators that move the one or more scanning mirrors, the one or more actuators being in communication with a controller configured to provide one or more control signals which cause the one or more actuators to move the one or more scanning mirrors so as to direct the probe light toward, or to receive the returned probe light from, a first optical sensor at a first time and a different second optical sensor at a different second time during scanning, and an objective lens that receives the scanning probe light from the one or more scanning mirrors and directs the scanning probe light onto the sensor chip; and

an optical detector in communication with the optical system to receive a portion of the returned probe light, to detect responses of optical sensors on the sensor chip over different wavelengths of the tunable laser, and to detect shifts in one or more resonances of respective ring waveguides of the optical sensors,

wherein the optical detector comprises a detection processing unit configured to detect the shifts in the one or more resonances of the respective ring waveguides by detecting positions of one or more resonance peaks of the respective ring waveguides and comparing the positions of the one or more resonance peaks of the respective ring waveguides to one or more resonance peaks of a reference etalon.

14. The device as in claim 13, wherein:

the controller is configured to scan the tunable laser over different wavelengths and to synchronize scanning of the probe light by the one or more scanning mirrors with scanning of the tunable laser over the different wavelengths to obtain responses at optical sensors over the different wavelengths during scanning of the probe light over the sensor chip.