An apparatus for particle characterisation, comprising: a sample cell for holding a sample; a light source configured to illuminate the sample with an illuminating beam and a plurality of light detectors, each light detector configured to receive scattered light resulting from the interaction between the illuminating beam and the sample along a respective detector path, wherein each respective detector path is at substantially the same angle to the illuminating beam.

The present disclosure concerns a device for identifying a chemical composition of particulate matter comprised in an aerosol. The device comprises an impactor arranged to divert a received aerosol stream to a sensing stream having an increased particulate matter concentration. The device further comprises an optical flow cell arranged to guide a received sensing stream along an elongate hollow wave guide defining a gas flow path and an optical path following at least in part a common trajectory so as to allow light travelling along said common trajectory to interact with the particulate matter comprised in the sensing stream. A chemical composition of the particulate matter comprised in an aerosol may be determined from a particle specific absorption peak. A particle concentration may be determined from a peak intensity.

A flow path device comprises a plate-like measurement flow path device and a plate-like separation flow path device. The measurement flow path device includes a first flow path for measuring specific particles on a first fluid and connected to a third flow path and a second flow path for correction and passing a second fluid, not including the specific particles. The separation flow path device includes a fourth flow path for separating and selecting the specific particles from a sample and collecting a fluid. The separation flow path device is on the measurement flow path device's upper surface. The sample passes through a fifth flow path, the upper surface's opening, and flows into the fourth flow path from an opening in the separation flow path device's lower surface. The first fluid passes through the lower surface's opening, and flows into the first flow path from the upper surface's opening.

The invention provides a method, apparatus and system for separating blood and other types of cellular components, and can be combined with holographic optical trapping manipulation or other forms of optical tweezing. One of the exemplary methods includes providing a first flow having a plurality of blood components; providing a second flow; contacting the first flow with the second flow to provide a first separation region; and differentially sedimenting a first blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components into the second flow while concurrently maintaining a second blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components in the first flow. The second flow having the first blood cellular component is then differentially removed from the first flow having the second blood cellular component. Holographic optical traps may also be utilized in conjunction with the various flows to move selected components from one flow to another, as part of or in addition to a separation stage.

The invention provides a method, apparatus and system for separating blood and other types of cellular components, and can be combined with holographic optical trapping manipulation or other forms of optical tweezing. One of the exemplary methods includes providing a first flow having a plurality of blood components; providing a second flow; contacting the first flow with the second flow to provide a first separation region; and differentially sedimenting a first blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components into the second flow while concurrently maintaining a second blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components in the first flow. The second flow having the first blood cellular component is then differentially removed from the first flow having the second blood cellular component. Holographic optical traps may also be utilized in conjunction with the various flows to move selected components from one flow to another, as part of or in addition to a separation stage.

An apparatus for particle characterisation, comprising: a sample cell for holding a sample; a light source configured to illuminate the sample with an illuminating beam and a plurality of light detectors, each light detector configured to receive scattered light resulting from the interaction between the illuminating beam and the sample along a respective detector path, wherein each respective detector path is at substantially the same angle to the illuminating beam.

The invention provides a method, apparatus and system for separating blood and other types of cellular components, and can be combined with holographic optical trapping manipulation or other forms of optical tweezing. One of the exemplary methods includes providing a first flow having a plurality of blood components; providing a second flow; contacting the first flow with the second flow to provide a first separation region; and differentially sedimenting a first blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components into the second flow while concurrently maintaining a second blood cellular component of the plurality of blood components in the first flow. The second flow having the first blood cellular component is then differentially removed from the first flow having the second blood cellular component. Holographic optical traps may also be utilized in conjunction with the various flows to move selected components from one flow to another, as part of or in addition to a separation stage.

Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided where fluid, such as a blood sample, is entered into a microfluidic channel in a microchip where the microfluidic channel possesses a micro/nanopillar array for sorting molecules by size. When the fluid passes through the micro/nanopillar array it is separated into particles of interest or particles not of interest or both. When particles of interest are lit by a light source via a first waveguide in the microchip connecting the light source to the microfluidic channel, then lighted particles of interest can be detected by an optical detector via a second waveguide in the microchip connecting the optical detector to the microfluidic channel. The information from the optical detector can be analyzed further by connecting the microchip to a mobile computing device with its own processing abilities or abilities via the internet or cloud.

The invention generally provides systems and methods for particle detection for minimizing microbial growth and cross-contamination in manufacturing environments requiring low levels of microbes, such as cleanroom environments for electronics manufacturing and aseptic environments for manufacturing pharmaceutical and biological products, such as sterile medicinal products. In some embodiments, systems of the invention incorporate a housing having an outer surface being a first antimicrobial surface and a touchscreen being a second antimicrobial surface. In some embodiments, substantially all of the outer surfaces of the system are antimicrobial surfaces. In some embodiments, the first antimicrobial surface may comprise an Active Screen Plasma alloyed layer. In some embodiments, the housing may comprise a molded polymer substrate and a metal coating layer bonded to the molded polymer substrate such that at least some exterior surfaces of the housing are metal coated surfaces.

A dual light source lens-free dielectrophoresis (DEP) flow cytometer for massively parallel single cell analysis. Each cells dielectric is inferred from measuring their altitude and subsequently velocity change due to DEP actuation in a microfluidic channel. Dual LED sources facilitate velocity measurement by producing two shadows for each cell passing through the channel. These shadows are detected using a linear optical array detector. Massively parallel analysis is possible as each pixel of the detector can independently analyze the passing cells. The DEP cytometer is composed of simple modular components and has the potential to be scaled to achieve a significantly high throughput label-free single-cell analyzer.