Patent ID: 7910356

Claim:
A method for determining the presence or absence of biological material in a sample comprising: multiplexing a plurality of kinds of capture molecules about a detection pathway on a planar array, comprising the steps of: distributing a first kind of capture molecule along the detection pathway at a first spatial frequency, interspersing a second kind of capture molecule among the first kind of capture molecule along the detection pathway at a second spatial frequency, and interspersing a third kind of capture molecule among the first and second kinds of capture molecules along the detection pathway at a third spatial frequency, each of the first, second and third spatial frequency being different from the other of the first, second and third spatial frequencies; contacting a biological sample to the planar array; scanning the planar array along the detection pathway with a scanning beam traveling over the plurality of kinds of capture molecules to produce a reflected beam containing information from the plurality of kinds of capture molecules; and detecting the presence or absence of binding of the plurality of kinds of capture molecules and a plurality of target analytes using interferometry and by demultiplexing the reflected beam containing information from the plurality of kinds of capture molecules to determine information of a particular capture molecule.