Porous mirror for optical detection of an analyte in a fluid

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10663395-B2
Application number	US-201615776469-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 17, 2016
Priority date	Nov 18, 2015
Publication date	May 26, 2020
Grant date	May 26, 2020

Abstract

A porous mirror ( 1 ) for detection of an analyte ( 96 ) in a fluid ( 99 ) by optical probing, comprising a translucent slab ( 2 ) with a front side ( 3 ), and a backside ( 4 ) facing away from the front side ( 3 ), wherein the front side ( 3 ) is adapted for being contacted with a fluid ( 99 ), and a reflective layer ( 5 ) at the front side ( 3 ) of the translucent slab ( 2 ), the reflective layer ( 5 ) being adapted to reflect light reaching the reflective layer from the backside ( 4 ) of the translucent slab ( 2 ), wherein the translucent slab ( 2 ) comprises pores ( 6 ), wherein the pores ( 6 ) are dead end pores ( 6 ) extending from respective openings ( 7 ) at the front side ( 3 ) into the translucent slab ( 2 ), through the reflective layer ( 5 ), wherein a cross-sectional dimension of the openings ( 7 ) of the pores ( 6 ) is dimensioned so as to prevent larger particles or debris, if any included the fluid, from entering the pores ( 6 ), while allowing the analyte ( 96 ) in the fluid ( 99 ) to enter the pores ( 6 ) via diffusion.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A porous mirror for detection of an analyte in a fluid by optical probing, comprising
a translucent slab with a front side, and a backside facing away from the front side, wherein the front side is adapted for being contacted with the fluid, and
a reflective layer at the front side of the translucent slab, the reflective layer being adapted to reflect light reaching the reflective layer from the backside of the translucent slab,
wherein the translucent slab comprises pores, wherein the pores are dead end pores extending from respective openings at the front side into the translucent slab, through the reflective layer,
wherein a cross-sectional dimension of the openings of the pores is dimensioned so as to prevent larger particles or debris from entering the pores, while allowing the analyte in the fluid to enter the pores via diffusion.

2. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein a cross-sectional dimension of the openings of the pores is about 1 μm or less, and/or wherein a length of the pores in an axial direction along the pores is less than 100 μm.

3. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein a porosity of a given volume of the translucent slab comprising pores is between 50% and 5% by volume.

4. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein an equivalent pore volume depth (DELTA) is less than 20 μm, wherein the equivalent pore volume depth (DELTA) is defined as the total volume of the pores (V) divided by the front side area (A) over which the openings of the pores are distributed.

5. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein an inner wall surface of the pores is coated with a hydrophilic coating.

6. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein the translucent slab is provided with further reflective elements arranged inside the pores, in a mouth portion thereof, adjacent to the opening at the front side of the translucent slab.

7. The porous mirror according to claim 6 , wherein the further reflective elements are provided as a reflective coating covering only a fraction of the circumference of the mouth portion of the pores in the vicinity of the opening, wherein the fraction is about 70% or less.

8. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein a transparent backing side of the translucent slab is provided with 60° angled surface to minimize the effect of the shift in refractive index between outside air and the transparent backing slide.

9. A porous mirror according to claim 1 , further comprising a light source, wherein the light source is adapted to illuminate at least the pores in the translucent slab.

10. A porous mirror according to claim 1 , further comprising a light detector, wherein the detector is arranged to receive light emerging from the pores in response to an illumination by the light source, and wherein the detector is adapted to generate a signal representative of the detected light.

11. A porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein the pores are track-etched in the translucent slab and reflective layer.

12. A porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein the pores are rinsed by diffusion.

13. A porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein the translucent slab is made of a transparent polymer.

14. A method for optically detecting an analyte in a fluid comprising
providing a porous mirror according to claim 1 ,
contacting the porous mirror with a reference liquid so as to fill the pores with the reference liquid,
contacting the front side of the porous mirror with the fluid,
waiting for a diffusion time to allow for diffusion of the analyte in the fluid into the pores to stabilize,
optically probing the fluid disposed inside the pores, and,
based on the result of the optical probing, establishing an analyte level of the fluid.

15. A method for optically detecting an analyte in a fluid according to claim 14 , wherein the analyte is bilirubin and the fluid is whole blood.

16. A system for analyzing a fluid comprising
a fluid chamber with inlet and outlet ports for feeding and discharging the fluid,
a first detector adapted to provide a first signal representative of a level of an analyte in the fluid, and
one or more further detectors, each further detector being adapted to provide a respective further signal representative of the analyte of the fluid,
wherein the first and further detectors are operable to obtain the first and the one or more further signals from the same fluid,
wherein the first detector is configured as a porous mirror for the optical detection of the analyte according to claim 1 .

17. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein a cross-sectional dimension of the openings of the pores is about 400 nm or less and/or wherein a length of the pores in an axial direction along the pores is about 25 μm.

18. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein a porosity of a given volume of the translucent slab comprising pores is about 15% by volume.

19. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein an equivalent pore volume depth (DELTA) is about 5 μm or less, wherein the equivalent pore volume depth (DELTA) is defined as the total volume of the pores (V) divided by the front side area (A) over which the openings of the pores are distributed.

20. The porous mirror according to claim 6 , wherein the further reflective elements are provided as a reflective coating covering only a fraction of the circumference of the mouth portion of the pores in the vicinity of the opening, wherein the fraction is about 50% or less.

21. The porous mirror according to claim 1 , wherein the pores are track-etched pores.

22. The porous mirror according to claim 21 , wherein the translucent slab is made of a transparent polymer.

Assignees

• Radiometer Medical Aps

Inventors

• Kjaer Thomas

Classifications

• G01N2021/0357

  Sets of cuvettes · CPC title

• B01L3/502715

  characterised by interfacing components, e.g. fluidic, electrical, optical or mechanical interfaces · CPC title

• A61B5/0075

  by spectroscopy, i.e. measuring spectra, e.g. Raman spectroscopy, infrared absorption spectroscopy (A61B5/0071 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N33/491

  by separating the blood components (G01N15/05 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N21/31 Primary

  Investigating relative effect of material at wavelengths characteristic of specific elements or molecules, e.g. atomic absorption spectrometry {(G01N21/72 takes precedence)} · CPC title