Optical interrogation device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10101274-B2
Application number	US-201314649660-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 5, 2013
Priority date	Dec 5, 2012
Publication date	Oct 16, 2018
Grant date	Oct 16, 2018

Abstract

An interrogation device for detecting luminescent light produced by analytes in a sample excited by multiple excitation light beams each having individual spectral contents, comprising a plurality of light sources each generating an excitation light beam; at least one detector for detecting the luminescent light produced by the sample; and an optical assembly defining distinct and fixed excitation light paths for each of the excitation light beams from the light sources to a common excitation site on the sample and defining a shared luminescence light path for the luminescent light from the excitation site on sample to the at least one detector, the excitation light paths and the luminescence light path being on a same side of the sample, the optical assembly including sample-side optics projecting the excitation light towards the sample and collecting luminescent light from the sample.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An interrogation device for detecting luminescent light produced by analytes in a sample excited by multiple excitation light beams each having individual spectral contents, comprising:
a plurality of light sources each generating one of said multiple excitation light beams, the excitation light beams being projected on a common excitation site on the sample to excite the analytes;
at least one detector for detecting the luminescent light produced by the sample; and
an optical assembly having:
common sample-side optics projecting the excitation light beams towards said sample and collecting luminescent light from said sample;
a main axis from said common sample-side optics to said at least one detector, said plurality of light sources being peripherally distributed about said main axis;
distinct and fixed excitation light paths for each of the excitation light beams from said peripherally distributed light sources to said common excitation site on said sample;
a shared luminescence light path for the luminescent light propagating rearward from the common excitation site on sample to the at least one detector;
an inwardly-redirecting assembly provided in said excitation light paths for inwardly redirecting said excitation light beams into said common sample-side optics close to said main axis and toward the common excitation site; and

wherein said excitation light paths and said shared luminescence light path are on a same side of said sample and said common sample-side optics is present in all of said excitation light paths and in said shared luminescence light path, and wherein said inwardly-redirecting assembly comprises an outer reflective element and an inner reflective element cooperating to receive the excitation light beams and redirect said excitation light beams toward said common sample-side optics.

2. The interrogation device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said optical assembly further comprises a filter provided in said shared luminescence light path, wherein said filter is one of a fixed filter and an actuated filter and wherein said filter is one of a single-band-pass filter and a multi-band-pass filter.

3. The interrogation device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the optical assembly is contained in a single housing.

4. The interrogation device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the optical assembly includes a component to shape at least one of a spatial and a spectral profile of at least one of said excitation light beam and said luminescent light.

5. The interrogation device as claimed in claim 4 , wherein said component is a spatial filter limiting a size of a given light beam along a corresponding light path.

6. The interrogation device as claimed in claim 5 , wherein said optical assembly includes a spectral filter and wherein said spectral filter has a spectral profile excluding the spectral contents of the excitation beam and is disposed in the shared luminescence light path.

7. The interrogation device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the optical assembly includes detector-side optics outputting the filtered luminescent light for detection.

8. The interrogation device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said optical assembly comprises waveguides to guide said excitation light beams towards said sample-side optics.

9. The optical interrogation device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said luminescent light produced from analytes in said sample results from at least one optical phenomena, said optical phenomena being one of fluorescence, phosphorescence, bioluminescence, time-resolved luminescence and polarization fluorescence.

10. A test apparatus for optically testing a sample, including:
an optical interrogation device as claimed in claim 1 .

11. The test apparatus as claimed in claim 10 , wherein said test apparatus is embodied by a system for performing one of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (rtPCR), isothermal amplification Recombination Polymerase Amplification (RPA) and other nucleic acid detection methods.

Assignees

• Genepoc Inc
• Univ Laval
• Univ Laval

Inventors

• Lemieux Hugo
• Chapdelaine Sébastien
• Béliveau-Viel David
• Gravel Jean-François

Classifications

• G01J3/443 Primary

  Emission spectrometry · CPC title

• G01N21/6445

  Measuring fluorescence polarisation · CPC title

• G01N2021/6484

  Optical fibres · CPC title

• G01J2003/102

  Plural sources · CPC title

• G01N2021/6471

  Special filters, filter wheel · CPC title