公开(公告)号：EP1660872A1

公开(公告)日：2006-05-31

申请号：EP04777186.0

申请日：2004-06-25

申请人： Corning Incorporated

发明人： CARRACCI, Stephen J ,  MOZDY, Eric J ,  DESPA, Mircea ,  SALIK, Mark D

IPC分类号： G01N21/77 ,  G02B6/13

CPC分类号： G01N21/7743

摘要： A grating-coupled waveguide (100) and a method are described herein that can be used to detect the presence of a biological substance (e.g., cell, drug, chemical compound) in a sensing region of the Grating-Coupled Waveguide. The Grating-Coupled Waveguide includes a substrate (112), a diffraction grating (108) and a waveguide film (106) that has a higher index of refraction than the substrate which has an index of refraction ? 1.5. The relatively low-index substrate effectively increases the sensitivity of the Grating-Coupled Waveguide by causing the waveguide mode to shift towards a biological substance located in a sensing region above the waveguide film, thereby increasing the field strength of the mode's evanescent tail in this region. In one embodiment, an array of the Grating-Coupled Waveguides are incorporated within the wells of a microplate.