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.
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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.
20 Citations
29 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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Specification