A system utilizes a flow cell for holding an analyte of interest for examination, such as a genetic material to be imaged for sequencing. Liquids, such as reagents and washing fluids are introduced into the flow cell during operations. A degasser removes gasses from at least some of the liquids before introduction into the flow cell. The liquids may be resident in the flow cell during detection operations, such as imaging. At least one fluid may be moved bidirectionally into and from the flow cell, such as for reuse. Another fluid may be moved unidirectionally through the flow cell to remove bubbles that may be present in the system.

To provide an automatic analyzer which stabilizes light quantity before measurement in a short period while prolonging a long life of light source. An automatic analyzer of the present invention includes a light source with two or more LED elements each having a different wavelength, an analysis section for executing analysis based on light radiated to a reaction vessel, and a current adjustment section for adjusting quantity of current supplied to each of the LED elements. The current adjustment section reduces the quantity of current to each of the LED elements in a non-analytical state individually to be smaller than the quantity of current in an analytical state.

A magneto-plasmonic nanostructure is disclosed. The structure includes a substrate, and a magneto-plasmonic stack, comprising a nano-sized plasmonic resonator, a nanomagnet, and a capping layer, wherein the nano-sized plasmonic resonator is configured to receive circularly polarized light at an intensity to thereby increase normal component of plasmon-generated opto-magnetic field, H.sub.OM,z, at least at the interface of one of i) the nano-sized plasmonic resonator and the nanomagnet, or ii) the nanomagnet and the capping layer, whereby the H.sub.OM,z direction is perpendicular to the rotational direction of the circularly polarized light and the nanomagnets in the magneto-plasmonic stack switches its magnetic moment in response to a change of the H.sub.OM,z direction in response to a change of the rotational direction of the circularly polarized light.

An automatic optical inspection (AOI) device and method are disclosed. The device is adapted to inspect an object under inspection (OUI) (102) carried on a workpiece stage (101) and includes: a plurality of detectors (111, 112) for capturing images of the OUI (102); a plurality of light sources (121, 122) for illuminating the OUI (102) in different illumination modes; and a synchronization controller (140) signal-coupled to both the plurality of detectors (111, 112) and the plurality of light sources (121, 122). The synchronization controller (140) is configured to directly or indirectly control the plurality of detectors (111, 112) and the plurality of light sources (121, 122) based on the position of the OUI (102) so that each of them is individually activated and deactivated according to a timing profile, that each of the detectors (111, 112) is able to capture images of the OUI (102) in an illumination mode provided by a corresponding one of the light sources (121, 122), and that when any one of the light sources (121, 122) is illuminating the OUI (102), only the one of the detectors (111, 112) corresponding to this light source (121, 122) is activated. Through the timing control over the multiple light sources (121, 122) and detectors (111, 112) by the synchronization controller (140), inspection with multiple measurement configurations can be accomplished within a single scan, resulting in a significant improvement in inspection efficiency.

A spectrophotometer 1 comprises a control unit 45 with a warming-up determination unit 452 that determines the completion of a warming-up based on a variation amount of a detection signal in a predetermined duration when a light detector 7 detects a light from a sample chamber without loading the sample. Specifically, the warming-up determination unit 452 calculates a difference between a signal intensity of the detection signal detected by the light detector 7 at the time when the predetermined time passes and a signal intensity of the detection signal detected by the light detector 7 at a previous time and determines that a warming-up is complete when a value of the difference is less than a first threshold value. The warming-up determination unit 452 automatically determines the completion of warming-up independently from the determination by the user.

An analysis device includes an optical disc drive, a gate information processing unit, a detection circuit, and a gate shift processing unit. The optical disc drive rotates a specimen analysis disc and detects a measurement radial position for an optical pickup. The detection circuit generates gate signals shifted by a gate shift amount in each measurement radial position in a rotating direction of the specimen analysis disc, and generates count values of the respective gate signals. The gate shift processing unit divides a gate signal-corresponding region of the corresponding gate signal by a unit gate shift amount in the rotating direction of the specimen analysis disc to define a plurality of divided regions and sets count values of the divided regions based on the count values of the gate signals.

An airborne particle-measuring device quantifies and qualifies contaminants of an air environment in clean-rooms, open spaces, and enclosed spaces such as homes, offices, industrial environments, airplanes in flight, cars and others. The device may include a sensor system, an electronics system, communications and information storage. The sensor system may include a high-power low-wavelength single-frequency continuous laser, an open-cavity high-efficiency mirror having an optical surface tuned to the laser frequency and a flow system that includes a vacuum pump to sample the air. The electronics system may be mounted on a single multilayer PC board with a microprocessor, firmware, electronics and a touch-screen LCD display. Innovations in light source, flow control, analog and digital signal processing, components integration and software allow provision of equipment in a wide range of high-complexity settings that require precise particle measurements.

An airborne particle-measuring device quantifies and qualifies contaminants of an air environment in clean-rooms, open spaces, and enclosed spaces such as homes, offices, industrial environments, airplanes in flight, cars and others. The device may include a sensor system, an electronics system, communications and information storage. The sensor system may include a high-power low-wavelength single-frequency continuous laser, an open-cavity high-efficiency mirror having an optical surface tuned to the laser frequency and a flow system that includes a vacuum pump to sample the air. The electronics system may be mounted on a single multilayer PC board with a microprocessor, firmware, electronics and a touch-screen LCD display. Innovations in light source, flow control, analog and digital signal processing, components integration and software allow provision of equipment in a wide range of high-complexity settings that require precise particle measurements.

Disclosed are embodiments of an ion beam sample preparation apparatus and methods. The methods operate on a sample disposed in a vacuum chamber and include steps of directing an intensity-controllable, tilt-angle controllable ion beam at a sample holder coupled to a rotation stage. The methods further include illuminating and capturing one or more images of the sample, extracting useful features from one or more images and thereafter adjusting the sample preparation steps. Further methods are disclosed for capturing sequences of images, programmatically rotating images, and displaying sequences of images with similar rotation angles. Further methods include extracting useful features from sequences of images that may change with respect to time as ion beam preparation continues.

A system utilizes a flow cell for holding an analyte of interest for examination, such as a genetic material to be imaged for sequencing. Liquids, such as reagents and washing fluids are introduced into the flow cell during operations. A degasser removes gasses from at least some of the liquids before introduction into the flow cell. The liquids may be resident in the flow cell during detection operations, such as imaging. At least one fluid may be moved bidirectionally into and from the flow cell, such as for reuse. Another fluid may be moved unidirectionally through the flow cell to remove bubbles that may be present in the system.