US 5,745,308 AGranted

Methods and apparatus for an optical illuminator assembly and its alignment

AssigneeBayer Aktiengesellschaft

InventorPeter E. Spangenberg

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

An optical illuminator assembly for an analytical instrument, such as a clinical hematology or a flow cytometer instrument, and method of aligning the components of the illuminator assembly and orienting the illuminator assembly. The illuminator assembly includes a plurality of optical components, such as a laser source, e.g., a laser diode, optionally a spatial filter, a beam shaping aperture, and a focussing lens. The optical components are mounted in or to a housing and are internally oriented with respect to the housing to produce a focussed laser beam output. The housing is in turn mounted on an alignment mechanism which can move the focussed beam in four degrees of freedom, thereby to direct the focussed beam to a particular location. Thus, a factory alignment and a low cost prealigned optical illuminator assembly is obtained, which can be easily oriented for use in an instrument.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A system for orienting an optical device having an optical axis comprising:

a body having a section of a cylinder, the cylinder section having a curvature and a longitudinal axis relative to the curvature corresponding to said optical axis;
a first turnbuckle and a second turnbuckle mounted to a base for rotation, each of the first and second turnbuckles having a left threaded section and a right threaded section, a first slide mounted on the left threaded section for translation along the left threaded section in response to a rotation of the turnbuckle, and a second slide mounted on the right threaded section for translation along the right threaded section in response to said rotation of the turnbuckle, wherein in each of the first and second slides further comprises a surface having a curvature, wherein the curvature of the cylindrical surface section of the slide is perpendicular to the curvature of the cylindrical section of the body;
wherein the body is supported by the surface of the first and second slides, and for a given turnbuckle, the supported body is vertically translated relative to said given turnbuckle by an applied rotation of said turnbuckle to raise or lower the body, and wherein the body can be translated vertically in response to said applied rotation being applied to the first and second turnbuckles equally.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.