Fluid level detector and analyzer

A system for either or both identifying a fluid and determining a level of said fluid in a container comprising:

• a translating drive which moves a pipette probe along a longitudinal axis;
• an electronic device which generates and propagates an incident electronic signal along a length of said pipette probe;
• a detector which detects an electronic reflected signal from said fluid in said container;
• a return loss bridge which separates said incident electronic signal from said reflected electronic signal and routes said incident electronic signal and said reflected electronic signal to a detector;
• and
• a computer resource that either or both i) identifies said fluid, ii) determines a level of said fluid in said container, through comparison of said incident electronic signal and said reflected electronic signal.

A system for determining a level of said fluid in a container comprising:

• a translating drive which moves a pipette probe along a longitudinal axis;
• an electronic device which generates and propagates an incident electronic signal along a length of said pipette probe;
• a detector which detects an electronic reflected signal from said fluid in said container;
• a return loss bridge which separates said incident electronic signal from said reflected electronic signal and routes said incident electronic signal and said reflected electronic signal to a detector;
• and
• a comparator that determines a level of said fluid in said container through comparison of said incident electronic signal and said reflected electronic signal.

An impedance spectroscopy method for performing one or more of identifying a fluid and determining a level of said fluid in a container, comprising the steps of:

• positioning a pipette probe above said level of said fluid in said container;
• generating an incident electronic signal in a specific frequency range from a source;
• propagating said incident electronic signal along a length of said pipette probe;
• detecting a reflected electronic signal reflected back toward the source;
• comparing characteristics of said reflected electronic signal with those of said incident electronic signal to determine of an impedance spectrum of said liquid and deriving parameters from said impedance spectrum;
• and
• either or both i) identifying said fluid in said container using the parameters derived from said comparison and ii) determining said level of said fluid in said container using information derived from said comparison.