Patent ID: 7381315

Claim:
A device for the analysis of one or more samples, comprising: a substrate; a plurality of electrophoretic separation channels formed in said substrate, with each electrophoretic separation channel having an inlet end and an outlet end and an interior portion defined by one or more sidewalls between said ends; a first electrode in electrical communication with the inlet ends of the plurality of electrophoretic separation channels; a second electrode in electrical communication with the outlet ends of the plurality of electrophoretic separation channels; a power source; a computer programmed to control the power source to apply a voltage between the first and second electrodes by maintaining the first electrode at a first voltage during operation of the device and maintaining the second electrode at a second voltage during operation of the device; an excitation-beam source adapted to direct an excitation beam of light along a beam path that intersects the interior portion of each of said electrophoretic separation channels at a region between said inlet and outlet ends, so as to simultaneously irradiate a region of each of the electrophoretic separation channels; and an emission detection system optically coupled to the interior portion of said electrophoretic separation channels, in the vicinity of said beam path, wherein each of said one or more sidewalls comprises a transparent portion through which said beam path extends, such that the beam path extends through each of the plurality of electrophoretic separation channels, and at least one sidewall of the one or more sidewalls for each electrophoretic separation channel is disposed between the respective electrophoretic separation channel and an adjacent electrophoretic separation channel of the plurality of electrophoretic separation channels.