Technical details of the reader

Figure 7: Monochromatic light (4) is coupled into the plastic microarray substrate (1), such that total internal reflection occurs. An evanescent field travels along the surface allowing fluorescence excitation. The substrate serves as a waveguide, which allows detection of the interaction between the immobilized probes (2) and the labelled DNA in the flow cell (3). A CCD-camera (7) with its filter (8) detects the fluorescence intensities. A cooling system (5) with a peltier element behind (6) regulates the temperature of the hybridization solution.

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