Imaging system with a cylindrical lens array

#The invention relates to an imaging system, in particular for automatic analyzers with a high sample throughput. Such automatic analyzers are frequently termed “readers” or “fluorescence readers” for microtiter plates. Such “readers” are used, for example, in the development of pharmaceutically active materials or in molecular medical diagnoses, and thus in applications in which fluorescence, luminescence, and absorption investigations of large sample numbers and very small sample quantities are required. Consequently a high sample throughput is of great importance in these applications. On the other hand, measurements of reaction kinetics are frequently required, the time constants of which are an obstacle to a high sample throughput.

#In these applications, microtiter plates are used, with very small sample containers arranged in an array, in standardized embodiments with, e.g., 96 or a multiple thereof, for example, 384 or 1536, sample containers. As an alternative, so-called substance chips are also in use as sample containers.

#In a few applications, the actual task of the measurement is to determine the fraction, or the change with time of the fraction, of a substance which has penetrated from the solution into the interior of a cell or which is bound to the cell surface. The substance concerned is as a rule marked with a fluorescing dye. In this measurement task, it is required to discriminate the fluorescence signal of the dye taken up by, or bound to, the cell from the fluorescence signal of the substance still present in the solution. Since the cells concerned are as a rule situated on the floor of the microtiter plate, a fluorescence reader is consequently required which operates floor-selectively.

#Details of the invention are described in more detail hereinbelow with reference to the embodiment examples shown in the Figures.

#FIG. 1 shows an outline of principles of the optical construction of an analysis system with an imaging system according to the invention,

#FIGS. 2a show the beam paths in the analysis system of FIG. 1, in and 2b two mutually perpendicular sectional directions,

#The measuring and evaluation system shown in FIG. 1 consists of a total of four modules (1-4), three of which contain optical components. It serves for the analysis, particularly fluorescence analysis, of the samples situated in sample containers (5a-5c) of a microtiter plate (5), as a rule cells lying on the floor of the sample containers (5a-5c) and surrounded by a nutrient solution.

#The module (1) next adjacent to the microtiter plate (5) contains a lens array (6) with plural cylindrical lenses (6a-6c) and a prism array (7) with prisms (7a-7c). The prism array (7) is arranged on the sample side of the lens array (6), so that the prisms (7a-7c) are situated between the cylindrical lenses (6a-6c) and the sample containers (5a-5c). The prism array (7) or the prisms (7a-7c) of the prism array are then oriented relative to the cylindrical lens array (6) such that the prismatic effect of the prisms is in the direction of the cylinder axes of the cylindrical lenses (6a-6c).

#A module (2) which contains a long-focus telescope lens (8) adjoins the side of the module (1) remote from the microtiter plate (5). The opening diameter, or more precisely the usable aperture, of the long-focus telescope lens (8) is then chosen such that this aperture overlaps the surface of all the apertures of the cylindrical lenses (6a-6c) of the cylindrical lens array. It should be mentioned at this point that for the sake of clarity, in FIG. 1 and the other Figures, respectively only a small section of the microtiter plate (5) with three sample containers is shown. In reality, 96, or an integral multiple thereof, 384 or 1536, corresponding sample containers are present, and there is a corresponding number of optical channels, which is determined by the number of microlenses (6a-6c) and of prisms (7a-7c). Correspondingly, the aperture of the long-focus telescope lens (8) overlaps all the optical channels.