Bars with (*) may require high speed access.

Infrared (IR) transmitting optic fibers provide an opportunity for the parallel monitoring of thermal (IR) signatures from hundreds of separate reaction sites.

The IR Fiber Optics Device consists of a set of IR transmitting optic fibers each equipped with an IR sensor at one end. The type of sensor may be customized to the assay based on the best combination of sensitivity, response time, size and cost. The sensing element may be a CCD, CMOS array or an assembly of individual sensors.

The opposite (reagent interfacing) end of the IR fibers are treated, shaped, coated or otherwise prepared to be chemically and physically compatible with compound retention and/or washing between sequential assays.

A sliding guide will “fan out” all optic fibers to match the pattern of a carrier (Micro-titer plates with 96. 384, 1536 wells, for example). A controlled “dipping” process enables retention of entities under investigation on the fiber terminus.  Special fiber terminations can be produced from IR transparent inert material (quartz), with enhanced (treated) surfaces and shapes to provide the desired immobilization or capillary retention of selected reagents.

A concentrating collar then bundles the individual optic fibers that have the retained entities and dips them all into a reservoir containing a common source of the ligand. This simultaneously initiates the binding process at the terminus of each optic fiber. Binding activity (if any) at the tip of each fiber will be detected by its thermal signature and the signal will be transmitted to the appropriate sensor. “Noise” from prolonged assay procedures is minimized since the procedure is rapid and all ambient conditions are virtually identical.

Please contact us for more information