A new generation of scanners for DNA chips

Today, most of the DNA chips are used with fluorescent markers. Associated with fluorescence confocal scanners, this technology achieves remarkable performances in terms of sensitivity and accuracy. The main technical issues related to these scanners have already been reviewed. However, these scanners are costly, especially when high density chips are used. In this case, a mechanical precision of 1 microm or less is required to achieve the measurement precision required. This cost level prevents the spread of this technology in the diagnostic market. We will present a new concept for scanners with equivalent or superior performances, with a cost cut of 5-10. This concept is inspired from the field of optical disk and reader. Basically, an optical format is added to the chip, before DNA deposition. This format contains tracks which are superimposed to the DNA features. These tracks define the path that an optical head of a CD player must follow in order to scan the surface of the DNA chip. Such a head is a very cheap component, and has a precision of less than 100 nm thanks to real-time focus and tracking. These functions are fulfilled by electromagnetic actuators mounted on the support of the frontal lens. We show here that it is possible to use such a head to build a fluorescence confocal scanner with equivalent or even better performances than conventional scanners.