US 5,689,110 A · Calibration method and apparatus for optical scanner

Abstract

A calibration method and device for a fluorescence spectrometer which uses fluorescence from a homogeneous solid state standard as the source of calibration fluorescence and wherein the solid state standard may be built into the optical scanner and the calibration may be automatically performed as a routine step when using the optical scanner. A gold standard establishes fluorescent units, and the fluorescence spectrometer is calibrated by reference to calibration standards, such as calibration rubies, which are themselves rated against the gold standard and built into the fluorescence spectrometer to provide an unchanging reference to the gold standard and by which simultaneous calibration of two or more channels of a multi-channel fluorescence spectrometer may be accomplished, including automatically calibrating a multi-channel optical scanner when it is turned on to achieve an acceptable level of sensitivity in each channel and to adjust for any relative shift in sensitivity between the channels.

Claims15

Dependent claims

In a method for calibrating two channels of a fluorescence spectrometer, the steps comprising:

providing a fluorescence spectrometer having a first channel and a second channel;
exciting a calibration standard to generate a fluorescent calibration beam;
separating said fluorescent calibration beam into a resultant first beam and a resultant second beam;
detecting said resultant first beam in said first channel to generate a first intensity value;
and
detecting said resultant second beam in said second channel to generate a second intensity value, wherein a current ratio is determined from said first intensity value and said second intensity value, and a calibration factor is determined by comparing said current ratio to a predetermined ratio.

3 more elements

In a method for calibrating a fluorescence spectrometer having a plurality of channels, the steps comprising:

providing a fluorescence spectrometer having a long wavelength channel and a short wavelength channel;
exciting a calibration standard to generate a first calibration beam;
separating said first calibration beam into a first resultant long wavelength calibration beam and a first resultant short wavelength calibration beam;
detecting said first resultant long wavelength calibration beam by said long wavelength channel to generate a first long wavelength intensity value;
detecting said first resultant short wavelength calibration beam by said short wavelength channel to generate a first short wavelength intensity value;
generating a first ratio between said long wavelength calibration intensity value and said short wavelength calibration intensity value;
subsequently exciting said calibration standard to generate a second calibration beam;
separating said second calibration beam into a second resultant long wavelength calibration beam and a second resultant short wavelength calibration beam;
detecting said second resultant long wavelength calibration beam in said long wavelength channel to generate a second long wavelength intensity value;
detecting said second resultant short wavelength calibration beam in said short wavelength channel to generate a second short wavelength intensity value;
generating a second ratio between said second long wavelength intensity value and said second short wavelength intensity value;
and
generating a calibration factor between said second ratio and said first ratio, wherein data generated by the fluorescence spectrometer may be calibrated by said calibration factor.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Calibration method and apparatus for optical scanner

Life of this patent

Calibration method and apparatus for optical scanner

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15