Biological material, measuring instrument
AssigneeTascom Co., Ltd.
InventorSung Dong Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A biological material measuring instrument is described. The biological material measuring instrument includes a rotating body and a main body. The rotating body includes one or more cartridge holders having cuvettes in which a reagent and an analyte in a sample react. The main body includes a pair of light-emitting parts and light-receiving parts to optically measure the analyte in the sample. The rotating body further includes a light-emitting optical waveguide for guiding the light of the light-emitting parts to the cuvette and a light-receiving optical waveguide for guiding.
Claims20
A bioinstrument comprising:
- a rotating body comprising a plurality of radially symmetrically positioned cartridge holders each of which is configured to hold a cartridge allowing a reaction between a reagent stored in the cartridge and an analyte in a sample to be loaded therein;
- a main body comprising at least one light detector capable of receiving light from the cartridge holders and optically measuring the analyte in the sample;
- a cartridge actuator installed at the main body to drive a cartridge so that the reagent of the cartridge is introduced into a cuvette of the cartridge;
- a cartridge detection sensor installed at the main body to detect whether or not the cartridge is loaded in the rotating body and a loading height of the cartridge;
- a motor connected to the rotating body, the motor capable of rotating the rotating body at an angular velocity sufficient to separate a particle component from the sample by centrifugal force;
- and
- a controller configured to drive the motor to successively position each of the plurality of cartridge holders to detect presence of a respective cartridge in each of the plurality of cartridge holders by the cartridge detection sensor, to decide whether rotation balance is obtained based on the detection, and if it is decided that rotation balance is not obtained, output an error message,
- wherein the rotating body comprises one or more light receiving optical waveguides, each of which guides light from each of the plurality of cartridge holders to the at least one light detector.
A bioinstrument comprising:
- a centrifuge main body comprising an enclosure that houses an axle and a light detector;
- a centrifuge rotation body rotatably fixed to the axle of the centrifuge main body, the centrifuge rotation body comprising a plurality of radially symmetrically positioned cartridge holders, each having a surface away from the axle of the centrifuge main body;
- a cartridge actuator installed in the enclosure of the centrifuge main body;
- a detection optical waveguide having an input end and an output end, the input end facing a surface of one of the plurality of cartridge holders other than the surface away from the axle of the centrifuge main body, and the output end facing away from the one of the plurality of cartridge holders;
- a cartridge detection sensor installed at the centrifuge main body to detect whether or not the cartridge is loaded in the centrifuge rotating body and a loading height of the cartridge;
- a centrifuge motor connected to the centrifuge rotation body via the axle and capable of rotating the centrifuge rotation body at an angular velocity sufficient to separate a biological cell from a liquid biological sample by centrifugal force;
- and
- a controller configured to align the output end of the detection optical waveguide of the centrifuge rotation body with the light detector of the centrifuge main body so that any light in the one of the plurality of cartridge holders can be detected by the light detector, and configured to drive the cartridge actuator to drive a cartridge so that a reagent of the cartridge is introduced into a cuvette of the cartridge,
- wherein the controller is further configured to drive the motor to successively position each of the plurality of cartridge holders to detect presence of a respective cartridge in each of the plurality of cartridge holders by the cartridge detection sensor, to decide whether rotation balance is obtained based on the detection, and if it is decided that rotation balance is not obtained, output an error message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.