US 6,181,417 B2Granted

Photometric readhead with light-shaping plate

AssigneeBayer Aktiengesellschaft

InventorAndrew J. Dosmann

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Abstract

A readhead for a spectrometer for illuminating a target area and receiving light from said target area is provided with a housing adapted to be incorporated in a spectrometer, a light source mounted in a fixed position relative to the housing, a support mechanism adapted to support a biological sample to be illuminated by the light source, a light-shaping mechanism disposed between the light source and the support for increasing the diameter, intensity, and uniformity of the light beam, and a photodetector mounted in fixed position relative to the housing, the photodetector being adapted to detect light from a biological sample disposed in the target area illuminated light sources. The light sources may be in the form of a light-emitting diode that emits substantially monochromatic light having a first wavelength, and the readhead may also include a second light-emitting diode that is adapted to emit substantially monochromatic light of a second wavelength towards the target area.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A readhead for a spectrometer for illuminating a target area having a predetermined area and receiving light from the target area, said readhead comprising:

a housing (16) adapted to be incorporated in a spectrometer;
a first light-emitting diode (12) mounted in a fixed position relative to said housing (16), said first light-emitting diode (12) being adapted to emit a substantially monochromatic light beam having a first wavelength towards said target area, said light beam emitted by said first light-emitting diode (12) having a uniformity and a divergence angle;
a second light-emitting diode (14) mounted in a fixed position relative to said housing (16), said second light-emitting diode (14) being adapted to emit substantially monochromatic light of a second wavelength towards said target area, said second wavelength being different than said first wavelength, said light beam emitted by said second light-emitting diode (14) having a uniformity and a divergence angle;
a support mechanism (20) adapted to support a biological sample to be illuminated by one of said light-emitting diodes (12, 14);
a substantially planar light-shaping plate (32) disposed between said first and second light-emitting diodes (12, 14) and said support mechanism (20), said light-shaping plate (32) being adapted to increase said uniformity of each of said light beams, to increase said divergence angle of each of said light beams, and to transmit greater than about 85 percent of the light emitted by said light-emitting diodes (12, 14) to said target area;
and
a photodetector (22) mounted in fixed position relative to said housing (16), said photodetector (22) being adapted to detect light from a biological sample disposed in said target area illuminated by one of said light-emitting diodes (12, 14).

4 more elements

A readhead for a spectrometer for illuminating a target area and receiving light from said target area, said readhead comprising:

a housing (16) adapted to be incorporated in a spectrometer;
a first light-emitting diode (12) mounted in a fixed position relative to said housing (16), said first light-emitting diode (12) being adapted to emit a substantially monochromatic light beam having a first wavelength towards said target area, said light beam emitted by said first light-emitting diode (12) having a uniformity;
a second light-emitting diode (14) mounted in a fixed position relative to said housing (16) , said second light-emitting diode (14) being adapted to emit substantially monochromatic light of a second wavelength towards said target area, said second wavelength being different than said first wavelength, said light beam emitted by said second light-emitting diode (14) having a uniformity;
a support mechanism (20) adapted to support a biological sample to be illuminated by one of said light-emitting diodes (12, 14);
a light-shaping plate (32) disposed between said first and second light-emitting diodes (12, 14) and said support mechanism (20), said light-shaping plate (32) being adapted to increase said uniformity of each of said light beams so that light from said light beams is distributed in said target area in a Gaussian distribution;
and
a photodetector (22) mounted in fixed position relative to said housing (16), said photodetector (22) being adapted to detect light from a biological sample disposed in said target area illuminated by one of said light-emitting diodes (12, 14).

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.