Illumina Corporation

Cyvera Corporation

Joseph Traynor

Martin A Putnam

John A Moon

Tuo Li

Paul S Szczepanek

Anthony Rauseo

A system for writing an optical code within or on a fiber substrate. The system includes a holding device that has a plurality of supports spaced apart from each other. The fiber substrate is wound about the supports such that the fiber substrate forms at least one flat section extending between adjacent supports. The system also includes at least one light source that is configured to write an optical code within or on the flat section of the fiber substrate.

Methods and systems for writing an optical code within or on a fiber substrate

A method and apparatus are provided for aligning optical elements or microbeads, 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 are aligned with a positioning device so the longitudinal axis of the microbeads is positioned in a fixed orientation relative to the code reading device. The microbeads are typically cylindrically shaped glass beads between 25 and 250 microns (&#x3bc;m) in diameter and between 100 and 500 &#x3bc;m long, and have a holographic code embedded in the central region of the bead, which is used to identify it from the rest of the beads in a batch of beads with many different chemical probes. A cross reference is used to determine which probe is attached to which bead, thus allowing the researcher to correlate the chemical content on each bead with the measured fluorescence signal. Because the code consists of a diffraction grating typically disposed along an axis, there is a particular alignment required between the incident readout laser beam and the readout detector in two of the three rotational axes. The third axis, rotation about the center axis of the cylinder, is azimuthally symmetric and therefore does not require alignment.

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

A method of manufacturing optical identification elements that includes forming a diffraction grating in a fiber substrate along a longitudinal axis of the substrate. The grating includes a resultant refractive index variation. The method also includes cutting the substrate transversely to form a plurality of optical identification elements that have the grating therein along substantially the entire length of the elements. Each of the elements has substantially the same resultant refractive index variation.

Method of manufacturing of a diffraction grating-based optical identification element

A method for manufacturing a diffusion grating-based optical identification element is provided. The optical identification element includes a known fiber substrate, having a diffraction grating disposed therein the grating being indicative of a code when exposed to incident light. A large number of elements or microbeads all having the same identification codes can be manufactured by cutting the substrate transversely where the grating is located, thereby creating a plurality of elements, at least two of the elements having the grating therein along substantially the entire length of the elements. The elements may be manufactured in many different ways, including winding the fiber onto a basket, forming the gratings in the basket openings or bays, removing the fiber and cutting the fiber to form the elements 8. Each bay may have a set of elements with a unique set of codes therein.

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Woburn, MA, United States of America

Joseph Traynor