Two-dimensional spectral imaging system

A system comprising:

• a plurality of spatially resolved labels generating identifiable spectra in response to excitation energy, wherein at least some of the spectra comprise a plurality of signals for each label, a first family of the labels generating different identifiable spectra having first signals with a first wavelength, a first label of the first family including an associated second signal defining a second wavelength, a plurality of labels of the first family including associated second signals having wavelengths which are different than the second wavelength;
• a detector simultaneously imaging the spectra of the plurality of spatially resolved labels upon a surface of a sensor, the detector comprising a dispersion member dispersing wavelengths of the spectra across the surface of the sensor;
• and
• a spatial position indicator to identify label positions within a sensor field of the detector.

A system comprising:

• a plurality of spatially resolved labels generating identifiable spectra in response to excitation energy, at least some of the spectra having a plurality of wavelengths, at least some of the labels being distributed in two dimensions across a two-dimensional sensing field;
• a detector comprising a light sensor having a two-dimensional light sensor surface, an open optical path, and a diffractor, the optical path of the detector optically coupling the sensor surface to the sensing field, the optical path sufficiently open in two orthogonal cross-sectional dimensions that spectra from the plurality of spatially resolved labels in the sensing field are simultaneously imaged upon the surface of the sensor with the simultaneously imaged spectra distributed in two dimensions across the sensor surface, the diffractor disposed along the optical path between the sensing field and the light sensor;
• and
• an analyzer coupled to the detector, the analyzer identifying the labels in response to the simultaneously sensed spectra.