An apparatus for the high throughput measurement of optical properties of liquid samples placed into the wells of a multiwell plate is disclosed. An optical fiber within a fiber bundle containing no corrective optics between the fiber ends and the well plate bottom illuminates the sample in order to induce fluorescence, and multiple fibers collect emission radiation and transmit it to a fluorescence detector such as a spectrometer. Other embodiments involve a light scattering illumination source with detection fibers located in either the same bundle containing the fluorescence monitoring fibers or an independent light scattering detection bundle for the measurement of static and/or dynamic light scattering. Some embodiments of the invention permit the measurement of phase analysis light scattering. Thus the measurement of multiple optical properties of a liquid sample may be made simultaneously or in succession. A method for these measurements is also disclosed.

An apparatus and method for an alignment cell are described herein. One apparatus includes a delivery fiber and a delivery lens coupled to an optical bench, a mirror to receive light from the delivery fiber through the delivery lens, wherein the received light is directed by the mirror to an ion trap on the trap surface, and a collection fiber coupled to the optical bench to receive light fluoresced from an ion in the ion trap.

Analyte arrays such as solutes in a slab-shaped gel following electrophoresis, and particularly arrays that are in excess of 3 cm square and up to 25 cm square and higher, are imaged at distances of 5 cm or less by either forming sub-images of the entire array and stitching together the sub-images by computer-based stitching technology, or by using an array of thin-film photoresponsive elements that is coextensive with the analyte array to form a single image of the array.

There is described a method for performing a Raman spectroscopy measurement on a sample. The method generally has sequentially illuminating an area of said sample with first and second excitation signals, said first excitation signal being slightly spectrally spaced-apart from said second excitation signal, resulting in said area sequentially emitting first and second emission signals; upon receiving said first emission signal, measuring a first intensity value being indicative of optical intensity of said first emission signal within at least a detection band; upon receiving said second emission signal, measuring a second intensity value being indicative of optical intensity of said second emission signal within said detection band; and performing said Raman spectroscopy measurement by comparing said first intensity value to said second intensity value.

The present invention is directed to microfluidics systems, instruments, and cartridges including self-aligning optical fiber systems and methods of use thereof. More specifically, the disclosure describes a microfluidics instrument including an optical detection system, microfluidics cartridge, and a self-aligning optical fiber system capable of coupling the microfluidics instrument and the microfluidics cartridge. Further, the disclosure provides methods of optical detection operations using a microfluidics system.

An apparatus for the high throughput measurement of optical properties of liquid samples placed into the wells of a multiwell plate is disclosed. An optical fiber within a fiber bundle containing no corrective optics between the fiber ends and the well plate bottom illuminates the sample in order to induce fluorescence, and multiple fibers collect emission radiation and transmit it to a fluorescence detector such as a spectrometer. Other embodiments involve a light scattering illumination source with detection fibers located in either the same bundle containing the fluorescence monitoring fibers or an independent light scattering detection bundle for the measurement of static and/or dynamic light scattering. Some embodiments of the invention permit the measurement of phase analysis light scattering. Thus the measurement of multiple optical properties of a liquid sample may be made simultaneously or in succession. A method for these measurements is also disclosed.

An apparatus for the high throughput measurement of optical properties of liquid samples placed into the wells of a multiwell plate is disclosed. An optical fiber within a fiber bundle containing no corrective optics between the fiber ends and the well plate bottom illuminates the sample in order to induce fluorescence, and multiple fibers collect emission radiation and transmit it to a fluorescence detector such as a spectrometer. Other embodiments involve a light scattering illumination source with detection fibers located in either the same bundle containing the fluorescence monitoring fibers or an independent light scattering detection bundle for the measurement of static and/or dynamic light scattering. Some embodiments of the invention permit the measurement of phase analysis light scattering. Thus the measurement of multiple optical properties of a liquid sample may be made simultaneously or in succession. A method for these measurements is also disclosed.

A system for analyzing a sample includes an illumination source with a plurality of transmitting optical fibers optically coupled to the illumination source and a detector with a plurality of receiving optical fibers optically coupled to the detector. The system further includes a plurality of probes coupled to respective ones of the plurality of transmitting optical fibers and respective ones of the plurality of receiving optical fibers. The plurality of probes are configured to illuminate respective portions of a surface of the sample and configured to receive illumination reflected, refracted, or radiated from the respective portions of the surface of the sample. The system may further include one or more switches and/or splitters configured to optically couple respective ones of the plurality of transmitting optical fibers to the illumination source and/or configured to optically couple respective ones of the plurality of receiving optical fibers to the detector.

A system including a light source, sampling tray, and a plurality of fiber optics positioned to achieve high contrast to improve accuracy and eliminate the need to rotate the sample. A composite light image from the fiber optics is fed to a spectrometer which converts the reflected light into a fingerprint corresponding to the concentration of at least one substance in the sample. The fingerprint is processed by a statistical model to determine concentration level of the at least one substance in the sample and the concentration level is then displayed.

A method of performing antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) on a sample uses a reader device that mounts on a mobile phone having a camera. A microtiter plate containing wells preloaded with the bacteria-containing sample, growth medium, and drugs of differing concentrations is loaded into the reader device. The wells are illuminated using an array of illumination sources contained in the reader device. Images of the wells are acquired with the camera of the mobile phone. In one embodiment, the images are transmitted to a separate computing device for processing to classify each well as turbid or not turbid and generating MIC values and a susceptibility characterization for each drug in the panel based on the turbidity classification of the array of wells. The MIC values and the susceptibility characterizations for each drug are transmitted or returned to the mobile phone for display thereon.