編碼微球：分別用不同配比的兩種熒光染料將直徑5.6μm的聚苯乙烯微球（Beads）染成不同的熒光色，從而獲得多達100種經熒光編碼的微球。
交聯探針、抗體或抗原：把針對不同檢測物的核酸探針、抗體或抗原以共價方式結合到特定熒光編碼的微球上。
檢測反應：先把針對不同檢測物的、用不同熒光色編碼的微球混合，再加入被檢測物（可以是血清中的抗原、抗體或酶等，也可以是PCR產物）。 懸液中的微球與被檢測物特異性結合，結合物被標記上熒光物質。
激光分析：微球成單列通過兩束激光，一束判定微球的熒光編碼；另一束測定微球上的報告分子的熒光強度。
1）液態芯片目前仍然處于基礎研究方面，雖然已經有部分臨床研究，但可能離大規模應用還有一段距離。
2）常見的應用如腫瘤、內分泌、自身免疫等的檢測，也有人將其用于細胞因子譜判斷。
3）下面是一些液態芯片相關經典的文獻，可以參考：
1. Hany Ezzeldin, Yoshihiro Okamoto, Martin R. Johnson, et al. A High-qhroughput Denaturing High - Performance Liquid Chromatography Method for the Identification of Variant Alleles Associated with Dihydropyrimidine Dehydrogenase Deficiency. Analytical Biochemistry,2002,306:63 - 73.
2. Carson RT, Vignali DA. Simultaneous quantitation of 15 cytokines using a multiplexed flow cytometric assay. J Immunol Methods, 1999,30.227(1 -2) :41 -52.
3. Karlar,G. A, M. Jeddi-Tehrani, F. Shokri. Diminished Thl and Th2 cytokine production in healthy adult nonresponders to recombinant hepatitis B vaccine. Scand. J Immunol,2002 ,55 :311-314.
4. Taylor JD,Briley D ,Nguyen Q,et al. Flow cytometric platform for high throughput single nucleotide polymorphism analysis. Biotechniques,2001.30 ( 3 ) ,661 - 666.668 - 669.
5. Wilco de Jager, Henk te Velthuis, Berent J. Prakken, et al. Simultaneous Detection of 15 Human Cytokines in a Single Sample of Stimulated Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Ceils. Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology,2003,10( 1 ) :133-139.
6. lannone MA.Microsphere-htsed molecular cytometry. Clin Lab Med,2001.21 (4) :731 -742.
7. Joos TO, Stoll D, Tempiin MF. Miniaturised multiplexed immunoassays. Curr Opin Chem Biol,2002,6( 1 ) :76 -80.
8. Dunbar SA, Vander zee CA, Oliver KG, et al. Quantitative, multiplexed detection of bacterial pathogens : DNA and protein applications of the Luminex Lab MAP system. J Microbiol Methods,2003,53 (2) :245 - 252.
9. David Opalka, Charles E. Lachman, Stefani A. MacMullen, et al. Simuhaneous Quantitation of Antibodies to Neutralizing Epitopes on Virus-Like Particles for Human Papillomavirus Types 6,11,16, and 18 by a Multiplexed Luminex Assay. Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology,2003,10( 1 ) :108-115.