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:
Sep. 28, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 25, 2001
Jerome L. Elkind, Richardson, TX (US);
Keren Deng, Plano, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor ( ) is disclosed. The sensor ( ) includes a light source ( ) and polarizer ( ), which emit polarized light toward a surface plasmon layer ( ). Light is reflected from the surface plasmon layer ( ) at many angles, toward a photodetector array ( ) via a mirror surface ( ). The surface plasmon layer ( ) includes a resonance film ( ), such as gold, and a hard protective layer ( ). The hard protective layer ( ) is of a thickness below the sensing range (R) of the SPR sensor ( ), and protects the resonance film ( ) from damage. Materials useful as the hard protective layer ( ) include silicon carbide (SiC), diamond-like carbon (DLC), silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, titanium oxide, titanium nitride, aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride, beryllium oxide, and tantalum oxide.