Laser intensity calibration
AssigneePerkinElmer Health Sciences, Inc.
InventorsErik Miller, Zhiyong Peng, James White
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems, apparatuses, and methods are described for calibrating a laser power are described. A system may include a sample to be tested and a control sample that comprises a control analyte. A user may indicate a known concentration of the control analyte to the system (e.g., by entering a concentration value into a user interface or other process). The system may perform multiple runs at different laser powers and compare the measurements of each run against expected values for the control analyte at the known concentration. From that comparison, a calibrated laser power may be computed and that computed power level can be used by the system for the running of tests on an unknown sample.
Claims19
A system comprising:
- a laser;
- a microfluidic channel;
- a sensor;
- a memory;
- and
- a processor configured to execute instructions stored in the memory, the instructions, when executed, cause the processor to:
- store a known concentration of a control analyte, the control analyte being present in a control sample at the known concentration;
- determine, using the known concentration of the control analyte and an empirically determined model, at least one empirically determined characteristic of the control analyte;
- perform multiple tests of the control sample at different laser powers applied to the microfluidic channel;
- obtain measurements from the sensor while performing the multiple tests;
- determine, based on the measurements from the sensor, at least one measured characteristic of the control analyte;
- compute a calibrated laser power based on a comparison between the at least one measured characteristic and the at least one empirically determined characteristic;
- and
- perform, at the calibrated laser power, at least one test of a sample.
A method comprising:
- providing an empirical model for a control analyte, the empirical model representing a relationship between a first characteristic of a control analyte and at least one second characteristic of the control analyte;
- performing multiple tests of a control sample at different laser powers, wherein the control sample comprises the control analyte at a known concentration;
- obtaining measurements from a sensor while performing the multiple tests;
- computing, based on the measurements from the sensor, at least one measured characteristic of the control analyte;
- determining, based on the known concentration of the control analyte and the empirical model, at least one empirically determined characteristic of the control analyte;
- comparing the at least one measured characteristic of the control analyte with the at least one empirically determined characteristic of the control analyte;
- providing a computed laser power based on a comparison between the at least one measured characteristic and the at least one empirically determined characteristic;
- and
- performing, at the computed laser power, multiple tests of a sample.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.