Patent ID: 8694069

Claim:
A fiber-optic (FO) probe comprising: an elongated body having proximal and distal ends, a side surface, a peripheral portion, an axis, and an outer diameter D P at the distal end defined in a cross section in a plane perpendicular to the axis; and spatially discrete peripheral sensors embedded therein, each peripheral sensor defined by a respectively-corresponding first straight and uniform FO-element having an outer diameter D F and seamlessly cast inside a UV-cured fluid-impermeable embedding material of the distal end to extend uniformly along the axis in the peripheral portion between the proximal and distal ends and having an end-facet in said embedding material at the distal end, a first solitary chamber having a first volume, defined by one or more of first solitary chamber walls enclosing the first volume inside the embedding material, a width, and a first symmetric aperture having a corresponding first recess and providing access to the first volume through the side surface, said first solitary chamber disposed to terminate the respectively-corresponding first straight and uniform FO-element at the end-facet and a first chamber wall and structured such as to cause said first FO-element to transmit light from the proximal end into the first solitary chamber and from the first solitary chamber towards the proximal end while, at the same time, preventing light in the first solitary chamber from being transmitted from said chamber to a first solitary chamber of any other peripheral sensor, a first indicator matrix containing a first indicator material and loaded in the first solitary chamber; each peripheral sensor further comprising a corresponding membrane patch disposed in the corresponding recess of the symmetric aperture of the first solitary chamber and dimensioned to match a geometry of the recess to seal and prevent the contents of said first solitary chamber from leaking out of said first solitary chamber, said membrane patch being selectively permeable by an analyte corresponding to the first indicator material; said probe having a capacity to accommodate (i) any number of said spatially discrete peripheral sensors in a range between 1 and Ns=π(D P /(r D F )−1), wherein r is a ratio of the width of the first solitary chamber to D F , and (ii) an additional sensor including an FO-element having an outer diameter D F and disposed axially inside the probe within a surface defined by a plurality of the peripheral sensors.