Parallel optical thin film measurement system for analyzing multianalytes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9546949-B2
Application number	US-201314408725-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2013
Priority date	Dec 20, 2013
Publication date	Jan 17, 2017
Grant date	Jan 17, 2017

Abstract

Optical computing devices including a light source that emits electromagnetic radiation into an optical train extending from the light source to a detector, a substance arranged in the optical train and configured to optically interact with the electromagnetic radiation and produce sample interacted radiation, a processor array arranged in the optical train and including a plurality of ICE arranged on a substrate and configured to optically interact with the electromagnetic radiation. The detector receives modified electromagnetic radiation generated through optical interaction of the electromagnetic radiation with the substance and the processor array. A weighting device is coupled to one or more of the ICE to optically apply a weighting factor to the modified electromagnetic radiation prior to being received by the detector, wherein the detector generates an output signal indicative of a characteristic of the substance based on beams of modified electromagnetic radiation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An optical computing device, comprising:
a light source that emits electromagnetic radiation into an optical train that extends from the light source to a detector, wherein the electromagnetic radiation optically interacts with a substance arranged in the optical train to produce sample interacted radiation;
a processor array arranged in the optical train and including a plurality of integrated computational elements (ICE) arranged on a common substrate to optically interact with the electromagnetic radiation and generate a corresponding plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation, wherein one or more of the plurality of ICE comprise alternating thin film layers of materials whose index of refraction is high and low, respectively, and wherein the detector receives the plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation; and
a weighting array arranged in the optical train and optically coupled to the processor array, wherein the weighting array includes one or more weighting devices optically aligned with one or more of the plurality of ICE to optically apply a weighting factor to the plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation prior to being received by the detector, and
wherein the detector generates an output signal indicative of a characteristic of the substance based on the plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation.

2. The device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first collimator arranged between the substance and the light source and configured to receive the electromagnetic radiation and direct a collimated beam of the electromagnetic radiation toward the substance;
an expander arranged between the substance and the processor array;
a second collimator arranged between the expander and the processor array; and
an optical focusing element arranged between the processor array and the detector, the optical focusing element being configured to focus the plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation toward the detector for detection.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the electromagnetic radiation is at least one of transmitted through and reflected off the substance.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the sample interacted radiation is generated by an evanescent wave.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the plurality of ICE is a frequency selective surface ICE core.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the weighting devices forms an integral part of the one or more of the plurality of ICE.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein one or more of the weighting devices comprises at least one of a neutral density filter, an optical iris, and a pinhole aperture.

8. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a signal processor configured to receive the output signal from the detector and determine the characteristic of the substance, the signal processor including a processor and a machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the signal processor to determine the characteristic of the substance.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processor array is configured to receive the sample interacted radiation and generate the plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the light source comprises a plurality of light source elements.

11. The device of claim 1 , wherein an expander is arranged between the light source and the substance.

12. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a spatial filter arranged in the optical train prior to the processor array.

13. A method, comprising:
generating electromagnetic radiation with a light source, the electromagnetic radiation being emitted into an optical train that extends from the light source to a detector;
optically interacting a substance arranged in the optical train with the electromagnetic radiation;
optically interacting a processor array arranged in the optical train with the electromagnetic radiation, the processor array including a plurality of integrated computational elements (ICE) arranged on a common substrate, wherein one or more of the plurality of ICE comprise alternating thin film layers of materials whose index of refraction is high and low, respectively;
generating a plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation through optical interaction of the electromagnetic radiation with the substance and the processor array, wherein each ICE generates a corresponding one of the beams of modified electromagnetic radiation;
optically applying a weighting factor to each beam of modified electromagnetic radiation with a weighting array arranged in the optical train and optically coupled to the processor array, wherein the weighting array includes one or more weighting devices optically aligned with one or more of the plurality of ICE; and
receiving the plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation with the detector and generating an output signal indicative of a characteristic of the substance with the detector based on the plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
collimating the electromagnetic radiation with a collimator arranged between the light source and the processor array; and
focusing the plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation toward the detector with an optical focusing element arranged between the processor array and the detector.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein optically interacting the substance with the electromagnetic radiation comprises at least one of transmitting the electromagnetic radiation through the substance and reflecting the electromagnetic radiation off the substance.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein optically applying the corresponding weighting factor to each beam of modified electromagnetic radiation with the weighting array comprises optically applying the corresponding weighting factor to each beam of modified electromagnetic radiation with the one or more weighting devices that comprise at least one of a neutral density filter, an optical iris, and a pinhole aperture.

17. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
receiving the output signal from the detector with a signal processor, the signal processor including a processor and a machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the signal processor to determine the characteristic of the substance; and
determining the characteristic of the substance with the signal processor.

18. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
generating sample interacted radiation with the substance upon optically interacting with the electromagnetic radiation;
receiving the sample interacted radiation with the processor array; and
generating the plurality of beams of modified electromagnetic radiation with the processor array.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein generating the sample interacted radiation with the substance comprises generating the sample interacted radiation from an evanescent wave.

20. The method of claim 13 , wherein the light source comprises a plurality of light source elements, and wherein generating electromagnetic radiation with the light source comprises generating a corresponding plurality of beams of electromagnetic radiation with the plurality of light source elements.

21. The method of claim 13 , further comprising expanding the electromagn

Assignees

• Halliburton Energy Services Inc

Inventors

• Skinner Neal G

Classifications

• G01J3/00

  Spectrometry; Spectrophotometry; Monochromators; Measuring colours · CPC title

• G01N2201/06113

  Coherent sources; lasers · CPC title

• G01J3/2803

  using photoelectric array detector · CPC title

• G01N2201/062

  LED's · CPC title

• G01N2201/12

  Circuits of general importance; Signal processing · CPC title