Microparticle sorting apparatus and delay time determination method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016223451-A1
Application number	US-201615093879-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 8, 2016
Priority date	Mar 30, 2012
Publication date	Aug 4, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A microparticle sorting apparatus includes a detection unit which detects microparticles flowing through a flow path; an imaging device which images a droplet containing the microparticles which is discharged from an orifice provided on an edge portion of the flow path; a charge unit which applies a charge to the droplets; and a control unit which determines a delay time as from a time that the microparticles are detected by the detection unit to the time at which a number of bright spots in a standard region, which is set beforehand, of image information imaged by the imaging device reaches the maximum, making it possible for the charge unit to apply a charge to the microparticles once the delay time has lapsed after the microparticles are detected by the detection unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A delay time determination method comprising:
causing a microparticle sorting device to detect microparticles flowing through a flow path; causing a microparticle sorting device to image a droplet containing the microparticles which is discharged from an orifice provided on an edge portion of the flow path; and causing a microparticle sorting device to determine a delay time as from a time that the microparticles are detected until the time at which a number of bright spots in a standard region, which is set beforehand, of image information of droplets that are imaged reaches the maximum.

2 . The delay time determination method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
imaging the images of a plurality of the droplets at a plurality of times; and preliminarily determining the delay time using the period of from the time at which the microparticles are detected until the time at which the number of bright spots within the standard region, which is calculated by comparing the image information of the plurality of droplets which are imaged, reaches the maximum as the provisional delay time.

3 . The delay time determination method according to claim 2 , further comprising:
imaging the images of the plurality of droplets within a shorter time than a discharge interval time of each of the droplets once the provisional delay time has elapsed from the time at which the microparticles are detected; and updating the provisional delay time and determining the delay time by referring to adjacent information relating to the number of the bright spots in at least one of two comparison regions that are adjacent to the standard region in relation to a discharge direction of the droplets in the image information.

4 . The delay time determination method according to claim 3 , wherein of the two comparison regions, a first comparison region and a second comparison region are arranged in order in a discharge direction of the droplets, the method further comprising:
calculating the time at which the number of bright spots reaches a predetermined percentage of the maximum value in the second comparison region in a process where the number of bright spots increases toward the time at which the number of bright spots reaches the maximum in the second comparison region; and determining the time to be the time at which the number of bright spots within the standard region reaches the maximum.

5 . The delay time determination method according to claim 3 , wherein of the two comparison regions, a first comparison region and a second comparison region are arranged in order in a discharge direction of the droplets, the method further comprising:
calculating the first time at which the number of bright spots reaches a predetermined percentage of the maximum value in the first comparison region in a process where the number of bright spots decreases from the time at which the number of bright spots reaches the maximum in the first comparison region; calculating the second time at which the number of bright spots reaches a predetermined percentage of the maximum value in the second comparison region in a process where the number of bright spots increases toward the time at which the number of bright spots reaches the maximum in the second comparison region; and determining the time in which the number of bright spots within the standard region reaches a maximum as (the first time+the second time)/2.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Muraki Yosuke
• Tsuji Akiko
• Miyata Takashi

Classifications

• B03C7/003

  Pretreatment of the solids prior to electrostatic separation · CPC title

• G01N2015/1481

  Optical analysis of particles within droplets (sorting particles within droplets G01N15/1492) · CPC title

• G01N15/1429

  Signal processing · CPC title

• G01N15/1425 Primary

  using an analyser being characterised by its control arrangement · CPC title

• G01N15/1434

  Optical arrangements · CPC title