Micro-screening Apparatus, Process, and Products

A system for analyzing one or more samples disposed in cavities of an array, comprising:

• an excitation light source configured to emit an excitation light having one or more excitation wavelengths that cause one or more samples disposed in respective cavities of an array to fluoresce;
• a cylinder lens configured to transmit the excitation light from the excitation light source as an astigmatic beam;
• a microscope objective configured to receive the astigmatic beam from the cylinder lens and to focus the excitation light as a line onto a column of cavities of the array, one or more samples disposed in the column of cavities simultaneously emitting a respective fluorescence signal in response to the line of excitation light, the microscope objective being further configured to transmit each respective fluorescence signal simultaneously;
• a grating configured to receive each respective fluorescence signal simultaneously and cause each respective fluorescence signal from the microscope objective to diffract, the diffraction producing a zero order beam and a first order beam for each respective fluorescence signal;
• an image relay lens configured to receive the zero order beam and the first order beam for each respective fluorescence signal from the grating;
• and
• a camera configured to capture an image of the zero order beam and the first order beam from the image relay lens for each respective fluorescence signal, the image relay lens causing the first order beam to be spatially separated from the zero order beam on the image, the image indicating an intensity profile based on the spatial separation between the first order beam and the zero order beam, the intensity profile identifying the at least one sample.