Pillar Waveguide Analyte Detection Sensitivity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current devices for analyzing fluids have insufficient detection sensitivity, particularly for analytes like DNA, which limits the ability to quantify nucleotides accurately due to high detection thresholds.
Innovation Solution
A device with a chamber and pillars, where the pillars have a core, an outer layer with a higher refractive index than the core, and a capture layer with a lower refractive index, guiding fluorescence light towards a free end for enhanced detection sensitivity, allowing for the capture and quantification of analytes with improved precision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional optical measurement is used on a capture surface, then the device structure is simple, but the detection sensitivity is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The device divides the capture surface into multiple pillars, each acting as an independent optical waveguide. This segmentation allows light to be confined and guided along each pillar, enhancing the interaction between light and captured analytes, thereby improving detection sensitivity while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from a two-dimensional flat capture surface to a three-dimensional structure with vertical pillars. This dimensional change enables light to propagate in the vertical direction through the pillars, increasing the effective interaction path length and enhancing detection sensitivity without significantly complicating the device.
2Measurement precision
If DNA chips with high detection threshold are used, then the device is simple, but the quantity estimation is only possible when a nucleotide is detected
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the detection surface into multiple pillars, the device increases the total light-analyte interaction area and confines light more effectively in each pillar. This enhances the fluorescence signal from captured nucleotides, enabling detection and quantification at lower concentrations that were previously below the detection threshold.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces conventional bulk optical detection with waveguide-based optical confinement. The pillars act as optical waveguides that confine and guide fluorescence light, substituting the need for high analyte quantities with an enhanced optical interaction mechanism, thereby lowering the detection threshold.
3Measurement precision
If light is not confined in specific structures, then the device structure is simple, but the fluorescence signal is dispersed and detection sensitivity is low
Solution Approach 1:
The capture surface is segmented into discrete pillars that act as individual light confinement structures. This segmentation localizes the fluorescence signal to specific regions, preventing signal dispersion and enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio by concentrating emitted light into defined pathways.
Solution Approach 2:
The pillars serve as optical intermediaries between the captured analytes and the detection system. They confine and guide the fluorescence light from the analytes toward the detection region, acting as a mediator that concentrates and directs the weak fluorescence signal, thereby improving detection sensitivity despite the added structural complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device achieves increased sensitivity and a lower detection threshold, enabling the precise determination of analyte concentrations, including DNA, by channeling fluorescence light effectively and increasing the signal-to-noise ratio.
Implementation Method 1
each pillar comprising a core, an outer layer arranged around said core and having a refractive index strictly greater than the refractive index of said core, and a capture layer arranged around said outer layer
Implementation Method 2
a capture layer arranged around said outer layer and having a refractive index strictly lower than the refractive index of said outer layer
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
The invention relates to a device (10) for analyzing at least one analyte from a fluid, in particular from deoxyribonucleic acid, the device (10) comprising at least one pillar (22) that extends from the wall (18), the or each pillar (22) comprising a core (23) having a first optical index, an outer layer (24) having a second optical index and a layer (26) for coating the outer layer (24), referred to as a capture layer (26), the capture layer (26) being a functionalized layer capable of capturing at least one analyte from the fluid and having a second optical index. The second optical index is far greater than the first optical index.