The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 04, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 12, 1999
Jerome L. Elkind, Richardson, TX (US);
Richard A. Carr, Rowlett, TX (US);
Jose L. Melendez, Plano, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
Disclosed is a sensing system and method utilizing a sensor cartridge (,) for making analytical measurements regarding one or more samples (,) of interest, the cartridge (,) comprising an opaque housing (,) having an opening (,), the opening (,) allowing access to one or more electrically conductive contacts (,) and one or more fluidic connectors (,) disposed within the housing (,) and mechanically aligned to the electrically conductive contacts (,), a flow cell (,) having one or more channels connected to the one or more fluidic connectors (,), and a fixed optic sensor (,) disposed within said housing (,) and aligned to a sensing surface on the flow cell. The fixed optic sensor may be, for example, a surface plasmon resonance sensor, a critical angle sensor, or a fluorescence-based sensor. In one embodiment of the present invention, the one or more electrically conductive contacts (,) comprise card-edge contacts (,). In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the one or more electrically conductive contacts comprise conductive pins (,) intended to be inserted into a socket (,) of a reporter unit (,). Because the optic sensor is pre-aligned, e.g., a sensing surface portion of the optic sensor is mounted on the flow cell, and at least one of the fluid connectors is aligned to the electrical contacts, the cartridge can be easily replaced on a host unit to allow, e.g., field analysis of multiple fluids.