Method and system for measuring the temperature of a thermochromic liquid crystal

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12044580-B2
Application number	US-202117402067-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 13, 2021
Priority date	Aug 13, 2021
Publication date	Jul 23, 2024
Grant date	Jul 23, 2024

Abstract

Methods and systems for measuring the temperature of a sample can include the use of one or more illumination sources and a sample containing thermochromic material. One or more detectors are operable to detect two or more signals indicative of a component of an illumination facilitated by the illumination source(s) and scattered at two or more angles with respect to the sample containing the thermochromic material, wherein the signals are converted to a temperature.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for measuring the temperature of a sample, comprising:
at least one illumination source;
a sample containing thermochromic material comprising thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) particles; and
at least one detector operable to detect at least two signals indicative of a component of an illumination facilitated by the at least one illumination source and scattered at at least two angles with respect to the sample containing the thermochromic material, wherein the at least two signals are converted to a temperature that is used to detect a temperature shift in the TLC particles using a single wavelength and the at least two angles and wherein the single wavelength is selected for optimization of the properties of the system for measuring the temperature of the sample.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one illumination source is substantially monochromatic.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the thermochromic material is in thermal contact with the sample; and
the temperature of the thermochromic material substantially represents the temperature of the sample.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one illumination source comprises at least one of: a laser, a light-emitting diode, a super luminescent light-emitting diode, or a broadband light source in combination with an optical filter.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one detector contains at least one of: a lens or a waveguide that collects scattered light.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a data analysis pipeline that calculates a temperature from the at least two signals.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the data analysis pipeline is used to calculate a normalized difference signal between of the at least two signals and for comparing the normalized difference signal to a look-up table of normalized difference versus temperature to determine the temperature from the at least two signals.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one detector comprises at least one of: a PIN photodiode, an avalanche photodiode, a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), or a photomultiplier tube (PMT).

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the sample comprises a microfluidic droplet, wherein the wavelength is selected a minimum of water absorption to minimize a heating of the microfluidic droplet by the illumination.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the sample comprises a single-phase fluid.

11. A method for measuring the temperature of a sample, comprising:
illuminating with at least one illumination source, a sample containing thermochromic material comprising thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) particles;
detecting with at least one detector, at least two signals indicative of a component of an illumination facilitated by the at least one illumination source and scattered at at least two angles with respect to the sample containing the thermochromic material; and
converting the at least two signals to a temperature; and
using the temperature converted from the at least two signals to detect a temperature shift in the TLC particles using a single wavelength and the at least two angles and wherein the single wavelength is selected for optimization properties of a system for implementing the method for measuring the temperature of the sample.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein:
the at least one illumination source is substantially monochromatic; and
the at least one illumination source comprises at least one of: a laser, a light-emitting diode, a super luminescent light-emitting diode, or a broadband light source in combination with an optical filter.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the sample is transparent with respect to illumination wavelengths associated with the illumination facilitated by the at least one illumination source.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one detector contains at least one of: a lens or a waveguide that collects reflected light.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising: providing a data analysis pipeline that calculates a temperature from the at least two signals.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one detector comprises at least one of: a PIN photodiode, an avalanche photodiode, a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), or a photomultiplier tube (PMT).

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the sample comprises:
a microfluidic droplet comprising a single-phase fluid, wherein the microfluid droplet is contained in a microwell.

18. A computer-program product for measuring the temperature of a sample, the computer-program product comprising a non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions thereon, the computer-readable instructions being executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform:
illuminating with at least one illumination source, a sample containing thermochromic material comprising thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) particles;
detecting with at least one detector, at least two signals indicative of a component of an illumination facilitated by the at least one illumination source and scattered at at least two angles with respect to the sample containing the thermochromic material; and
converting the at least two signals to a temperature;
using the temperature converted from the at least two signals to detect a temperature shift in the TLC particles using a single wavelength and the at least two angles, wherein the single wavelength is selected for optimization of the properties of the system for measuring the temperature of the sample.

19. The computer-program product of claim 18 , wherein the computer-readable instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform:
using a data analysis pipeline to calculate a normalized difference signal between the at least two signals and for comparing the normalized difference signal to a look-up table of normalized difference versus temperature to determine the temperature from the at least two signals.

20. The computer-program product of claim 18 , wherein the computer-readable instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the processor to perform:
computing the temperature based on a normalized difference signal and a look-up table of normalized difference versus temperature.

Assignees

• Palo Alto Res Ct Inc
• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Chamoun Jacob
• Recht Michael I
• Martini Joerg
• Plochowietz Anne

Classifications

• G01K11/165 Primary

  of organic liquid crystals · CPC title

• G01K11/12 Primary

  using changes in colour, translucency or reflectance · CPC title