Hand-held spectrometer

Abstract

A hand-held portable modular spectrometer unit. The unit includes a detachable head containing a light source and optical components for detecting spectral information from light reflected from or transmitted through a target and a processor for converting the detected spectral information into digital information. The unit also includes a plug-in rechargeable power supply and a control module for controlling the components in the measurement head. The controller includes a computer processor for analyzing the digital information produced by the measurement head and a display monitor for displaying spectral information produced by the control unit. In preferred embodiments the plug-in rechargeable power supply is a 12-volt off-the-shelf power-tool rechargeable battery unit. In preferred embodiments several measuring heads are available. These include a gas cell measuring head, a surface reflectance measuring head that includes and integrating sphere, a specular reflectance measuring head, a grazing angle measuring head, an attenuated total reflectance measuring head, a diffuse reflection measuring head, a non-volatile residues measuring head, a liquid transmission cell measuring head and a fluorescence measuring head. Each of these measurement heads includes a spectrometer. Several types of spectrometers are available including those based on filters, prisms, gratings and interferometers. The unit can operate in a wide range of wavelengths including the infrared, visible and ultraviolet spectral ranges.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.