Georgetown University of Washington, DC, has received US Patent No. 8,349,584, "Microarrays and their manufacture." A method is claimed for creating two- and three-dimensional arrays. Plates of sample materials are stacked to create primary stacks. These primary stacks are then sliced to form combs, which are, in turn, stacked to form secondary stacks. The secondary stacks are then sliced to form tertiary plates or two-dimensional arrays. According to the patent, the tertiary plates can also be stacked to form three-dimensional arrays. The two- and three-dimensional arrays can be used in large-scale parallel processing of samples, pattern printing, tissue engineering, microfluidics, microelectronics, and microconstruction, the inventors claim.
Affymetrix of Santa Clara, Calif., has received US Patent No. 8,351,026, "Methods and devices for reading microarrays." A system is claimed for acquiring images of a probe array. It includes a first light-emitting diode that provides light, consisting of a first range of wavelengths outside of an excitation spectrum; a second light-emitting diode that provides light consisting of a second range of wavelengths inside of the excitation spectrum; and a detector that detects one or more wavelengths in the first range of wavelengths, where the first range of wavelengths consists of light wavelengths emitted from fluorescent molecules associated with one or more probes of the probe array in response to the second range of wavelengths and wavelengths reflected from one or more reflective elements associated with the probe array.