US Patent 7344832 - Nanoarrays formed on probe tip

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7344832.html

Microarrays are specially designed supports for facilitating bioanalysis such as by using antibody-antigen attraction. The formation of such microarrays usually requires inkjet printing or other processes that have limited resolution making the formation of comparable "nanoarrays" difficult. This patent from BioForce Nanosciences teaches an interesting technique using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) cantilever to facilitate the formation of such nanoarrays. Claim 1 reads:

1. An apparatus for analyzing a sample comprising a probe, the probe comprising a pointed member, the pointed member having a plurality of domains disposed thereon, wherein the domains comprise one or more biomolecules and wherein the domains form an array.