Patent ID: 9679169
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: B01L,G01N,G06K

Claim:
1. A sample carrier, comprising: a sample support region that supports a sample of a subject to be processed by a sample processing apparatus; storage and communications circuitry that includes a wireless interface that wirelessly communicates with a storage component reader of the sample processing apparatus when the sample carrier is loaded in the sample processing apparatus for processing, wherein the storage and communications circuitry stores a unique identification of the sample carrier and subject information about the subject, and the storage and communications circuitry wirelessly communicates at least the unique identification via the wireless interface to the storage component reader; a disconnection region connecting first and second regions of the sample carrier, wherein all of the sample support region and the storage and communications circuitry are located in the same one of the first or second regions, which disconnects from the other of the first or second regions via the disconnection region to form a smaller sample carrier with both the sample support region and the storage and communications circuitry; wherein the storage and communications circuitry is programmable, and the unique identification is programmed in the storage and communications circuitry; wherein the sample processing apparatus comprises a plurality of storage component readers that include the storage component reader, so when the sample carrier along with a plurality of other sample carriers are loaded into the sample processing apparatus, each storage component reader of the plurality of storage component readers are respectively configured for one to one communication with a respective sample carrier, with respect to the sample carrier and the plurality of other sample carriers, by positioning the storage component reader adjacently over the respective sample carrier, so that the sample carrier and the other plurality of sample carriers only communicate with a respective storage component reader, and wherein the storage and communications circuitry is reprogrammed to remove the unique identification for the sample and add a different unique identification for a subsequent sample.