Optical coherence tomography (OCT) freeze drying microscopy
AssigneePhysical Sciences, Inc.
InventorsMircea Mujat, William J. Kessler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A product critical temperature during freeze drying is determined. The product is imaged using optical coherence tomography (“OCT”). The product is freeze dried while the temperature of the product is measured. The product critical temperature is the temperature at which a product structure event occurs during freeze drying.
Claims11
A system for determining a product collapse or eutectic melt temperature during a primary drying phase of freeze drying, the system comprising:
- a freeze dryer including a holder for a product;
- a temperature sensor coupled to the product;
- a three-dimensional imager including a source of radiation and a detector positioned proximate to the holder;
- and
- a processor coupled to the detector of the three-dimensional imager, the processor configured to receive images from the three dimensional imager, receive information about product temperature from the temperature sensor during freeze drying, and determine the product critical temperature by determining a temperature at which a viscous flow in the product structure occurs during ice sublimation from the received images and the received information about product temperature.
A system for measuring an onset of viscous flow and consolidation of pores in a dry layer of a sample during freeze drying, the system comprising:
- a freeze dryer including a holder for the sample;
- a three-dimensional imager including a source of radiation and a detector positioned proximate to the holder;
- and
- a processor coupled to the detector of the three-dimensional imager, the processor configured to receive images from the three dimensional imager and determine a pore structure characteristic within the sample from the images.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.