A system for fluorescence activated cell sorting includes at least two excitation lasers and an objective that directs light from the at least two excitation lasers to a common point in an interrogation region of a fluidic channel. The fluidic channel directs a flow of a plurality of fluorescently labeled particles through the interrogation region. At least one modulator temporally multiplexes light from the at least two excitation lasers such that pulses of light from different lasers intersect the common point at different times. The system further includes at least one detector and at least one optical element that directs light emitted from the particles and transmitted through the objective to the at least one detector. The system may further include optics for generating and detecting side and forward scattered light. Methods for operating example systems to collect fluorescent, side scattered and forward scattered light are also described herein.

A system for fluorescence activated cell sorting includes at least two excitation lasers having different orientations relative to an objective such that light from the at least two lasers passes through the objective and intersects a fluidic channel at different positions within an interrogation region. The fluidic channel directs a flow of a plurality of fluorescently labeled particles through the interrogation region. The system further includes at least one detector and at least one optical element that directs light emitted from the plurality of fluorescently labeled particles and transmitted through the objective to the at least one detector. The system may further include optics for generating and detecting side and forward scattered light. Methods for operating example systems to collect fluorescent, side scattered and forward scattered light from a plurality of particles are also described herein.

A compact sorting flow cytometer system is disclosed. The system includes a fluidics system having a flow cell and a deflection chamber in communication with the flow cell to receive drops in a stream of a sample biological fluid with one or more biological cells or particles and selectively deflect the drops in the stream of the sample biological fluid with the one or more biological cells or particles; and a droplet deposition unit (DDU) system in communication with the deflection chamber to receive the selectively deflected drops in the stream of the sample biological fluid with the one or more biological cells or particles into one or more containers. The DDU system includes a case or a housing with an open face surround by edges of the case, the case forming a portion of a containment chamber, the case having a top side opening aligned with the deflection chamber to receive the selectively deflected drops in the stream of the sample biological fluid into one or more containers in the containment chamber, a seal mounted around edges of the case, one or more hinges coupled to a bottom portion of the case, and a door coupled to the one or more hinges to pivot the door about the one or more hinges, the door when closed to press against the seal and close off the containment chamber from an external environment.

A method for evacuation of air in a containment chamber of a flow cytometer is disclosed. The method includes turning off a return fan in a first tunnel between an air conditioning chamber and a containment chamber; turning on an evacuation fan in a second tunnel between the air conditioning chamber and the containment chamber, the evacuation fan pulling air out of the containment chamber into the air conditioning chamber, opening a valve in an evacuation vent, the evacuation fan pushing air out of the air conditioning chamber through the evacuation vent into the environment; and continuously running the evacuation fan for a predetermined period of time to evacuate air out of the containment chamber.

Method of and apparatus for performing cyclic flow cytometry analysis on a sample population of cellular entities including: causing each cellular entity to be labeled with an optical identifier; for each cellular entity, performing a first pass of flow cytometry measurement over a flow channel with respect to a first set of parameters, under conditions of determining an identification for the cellular entity for which values of the first set of parameters are being obtained, and storing the values of the first set in association with the identification; and performing a second pass of flow cytometry measurement over the flow channel with respect to a second set of parameters, under conditions of separately determining an identification for the cellular entity for which values of the second set of parameters are being obtained, and storing the values of the second set in association with the identification.

An optical fiber forward scatter channel in a flow cytometer is disclosed. A detector system in the flow cytometer includes fiber optic cable for receiving scattered light from an incident laser light that is directed at cells/particles passing through the flow cytometer. The fiber optic cable delivers the scattered light to a sensor system, which collects data to perform analyses on the scattered light. Such analyses may include, for example, calculating the size of a cell/particle, counting cells/particles, and so on. The fiber optic cable is an inherently efficient and accurate filter for the acceptance or rejection of the scattered light.

An optical engine its use in a bench top flow cytometer, the optical engine having a set of lasers, each focused horizontally along an x-axis to a same horizontal position and vertically along a y-axis to a different vertical position along a same excitation plane of a flow cell, a set of optics that separate fluorescence of a same wavelength range into different locations in a focal plane of collection optics according to the different lasers by which the fluorescent light is excited; and a detector that selectively detects light from the different locations thereby distinguishing between fluorescence emitted within the same wavelength range as excited by the different lasers.

An example system can include a support and two or more sensor elements mounted to the support. Each sensor element can be electrically connected to a common electrical node and may include: a respective quench resistor connected to a respective internal node; and a respective photodiode (PD) connected to the respective internal node; a differentiating element fed by at least one of the photodiodes; a first readout electrode fed by the common electrical node; and a second readout electrode fed by the differentiating element. The common electrical node may be connected to at least one of the quench resistors or at least one of the photodiodes.

A system, method, and apparatus are provided for cytometry with dual laser beams. In one example, the method includes directing an incident light beam from a source to enter an optical waveplate; polarizing the incident light beam into a polarized light beam in response to the incident light beam entering through the optical waveplate; directing the polarized light beam to enter a birefringent crystal; separating the polarized light beam into an ordinary light beam and an extraordinary light beam in response to the polarized light beam entering the birefringent crystal; directing the ordinary light beam and the extraordinary light beam to enter a lens; focusing the ordinary light beam and the extraordinary light beam into dual light beams separated by a beam displacement; and coupling the dual light beams to form a sample region having substantially uniform light intensity to analyze moving particles in the particle analyzer.

An apparatus to provide a label-free or native particle analysis comprises a light generating system producing first light pulses at a first wavelength and second light pulses at a second wavelength; and a flow cell coupled to the light generating system to convey particles for analysis. The light generating system is configured to chirp at least one of the first light pulses and the second light pulses to analyze the particles.

Described herein are apparatuses for analyzing an optical signal decay. In some embodiments, an apparatus includes: a source of a beam of pulsed optical energy; a sample holder configured to expose a sample to the beam; a detector comprising a number of spectral detection channels configured to convert the optical signals into respective electrical signals; and a signal processing module configured to perform a method. In some embodiments, the method includes: receiving the electrical signals from the detector; mathematically combining individual decay curves in the electrical signals into a decay supercurve, the supercurve comprising a number of components, each component having a time constant and a relative contribution to the supercurve; and numerically fitting a model to the supercurve.