Patent ID: 6969488
Filing Date: 2005-11-29
Classification: B01J,B01L,G01N,Y10S,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A flow chamber, comprising: an inlet at one end of said flow chamber; an outlet at another end of said flow chamber; and a planar cavity in fluid communication with each of said inlet and outlet, wherein said planar cavity comprises a floor having a plurality of parallel ridges disposed parallel to a longitudinal axis of the flow chamber, and holds a monolayer of microparticles in a substantially immobilized planar array, such that said microparticles form rows between the parallel ridges, and such that processing reagents can access each microparticle during a sequence of processing steps, wherein the number of microparticles per unit area in the planar array is at least eighty percent of the number of microparticles in a hexagonal array of equal area, or the average distance between centers of adjacent microparticles in the planar array is less than two microparticle diameters; each of a plurality of the microparticles having an analyte anchored thereto.