Method and apparatus for aligning microbeads in order to interrogate the same

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for aligning optical elements or microbeads 8, wherein each microbead has an elongated body with a code embedded therein along a longitudinal axis thereof to be read by a code reading device. The microbeads 8 are aligned with a positioning device (or cell) 500 having a plate or platform 200, 1252 with grooves 205, 1258 so the longitudinal axis of the microbeads is positioned in a fixed orientation relative to the code reading device. The microbeads 8 are typically cylindrically shaped glass beads having a diffraction grating-based code embedded in the bead 8 disposed along an axis, which requires a predetermined alignment between the incident code readout laser beam and the code readout detector in two of three rotational axes. The geometry of the grooves 205 are designed to allow for easy loading and unloading of beads from a cell, and the grooves 205 may be straight or curved. Also, the cell may be segmented into regions each associated with a different reaction or used for a different identification process / application, and may have many different geometries depending on the application.

Description

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application claims the benefit of: U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 609,583, filed Sep. 13, 2004, entitled “Improved Method and Apparatus for Aligning Microbeads in Order to Interrogate Same” (Docket No. CV-0082 PR); Ser. No. 60 / 610,910, filed Sep. 17, 2004, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Aligning Microbeads in Order to Interrogate Same” (Docket No. CV-0086 PR); and Ser. No. 60 / 610,833, filed Sep. 17, 2004, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Transporting and Kitting Microbeads” (Docket No. CV-0087 PR); and is a continuation-in-part of: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 661,836, filed Sep. 12, 2003, entitled “Method And Apparatus For Aligning Microbeads In Order To Interrogate The Same” (Docket No. CV-0042), and Ser. No. 11 / 063,665, filed Feb. 22, 2005, entitled “Multi-well Plate with Alignment Grooves for Encoded Microparticles” (Docket No. CV-0053 US), all the above of which are incorporated herein by referen...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a new and unique method and apparatus for aligning and reading microbeads. The microbeads have an elongated body with a code embedded therein along a longitudinal axis. The method involves aligning the microbeads with a positioning device so the code is positioned in a fixed orientation relative to a code reading device. The positioning device includes a plate or tube with parallel or other grooves or channels that the microbeads can fall into and be aligned with. The microbeads can be mixed after reading and re-read to enhance the statistics of the readout process. The invention also provides an optical identification element with a diffraction grating that produces an output optical signal when illuminated by an incident light signal, and an alignment device that aligns the optical identification element such that the output optical signal is indicative of the code.

Problems solved by technology

Existing technologies, such as bar codes, electronic microchips / transponders, radio-frequency identification (RFID), and fluorescence and other optical techniques, are often inadequate.

For example, existing technologies may be too large for certain applications, may not provide enough different codes, or cannot withstand harsh temperature, chemical, nuclear and / or electromagnetic environments.

One challenge in transporting microbeads is being able to move them reliably from one location to another reliably and / or being able to move a predetermined number of beads.

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