Patent ID: 8675199

Claim:
A detection system for detecting a biologically active analyte molecule comprising: a substrate comprising a plurality of excitation waveguides, a plurality of collection waveguides, the excitation waveguides and collection waveguides crossing to form an array of intersection regions where an excitation waveguide and a collection waveguide cross and provide optical communication with the intersection region at each crossing, and a plurality of optical sensing sites each in optical communication with an intersection region; a scanning light source, wherein the scanning light source is at some point along its scanning path in optical communication with one or more of the excitation waveguides; a detector that is in optical communication with one or more of the collection waveguides; and an actuator for spatially translating a light beam emitted from said scanning light source relative to the substrate such that the light beam is coupled to and in optical communication with the waveguides of the substrate at some point along its scanning path.