Methods and device to balance radiation transference

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9644234-B2
Application number	US-201214368420-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 28, 2012
Priority date	Dec 28, 2011
Publication date	May 9, 2017
Grant date	May 9, 2017

Abstract

A method and device for adjusting the temperature of a sample by heating a substrate with a laser diode light; said light projected on to the substrate to absorb the light and convert the light energy to a heat energy thereby raising the temperature of the substrate corresponding to the intensity of the light energy, the substrate configured to transfer the thermal energy substantially homogenously to the sample. The device or method suitable for amplification of a nucleic acid sample.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device for adjusting the temperature of at least one sample, the device comprising:
a sample vessel for holding the sample;
a substrate external to the sample vessel and a laser diode for projecting light onto the substrate, wherein the laser diode is configured to project light onto at least a portion of the substrate such that the substrate absorbs
and converts the light energy to thermal energy thereby raising the temperature of the substrate by an amount corresponding to the intensity of the light energy, such that thermal energy is transferred to the sample, wherein the substrate and the laser diode are rotated relative to each other.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein a portion of the substrate that comes into contact with the light has an emissivity value of larger than 0.9 and in particular the portion of the substrate that comes into contact with the light is black and a portion of the substrate that does not come into contact with the light is non-black.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the substrate is in the form of a ring.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein the substrate is made of metals, alloys, metal composites, ceramics, foams or thermally conductive polymers.

5. The device of claim 1 further comprising one or more optical elements selected from a beam splitter, a diffractive optical element, a mirror, a lens, a light guide or an optical switch is positioned in the path of a light beam between the laser diode and the substrate.

6. The device of claim 1 further comprising at least one of the following: a fan or a blower to remove thermal energy from the substrate, a signal processor for detecting a signal of the sample, a portable battery and a temperature sensor not in contact with the substrate.

7. A device for adjusting the temperature of at least one sample, the device comprising:
a sample vessel for holding the sample, a substrate external to the sample vessel and a laser diode for projecting light onto the substrate, wherein light is provided as a plurality of beamlets projected onto the substrate at several locations, such that the substrate absorbs and converts the light energy to thermal energy thereby raising the temperature of the substrate by an amount corresponding to the intensity of the light energy, such that thermal energy is transferred to the sample.

8. The device of claim 7 , wherein the substrate or laser diode is configured to rotate relative to the other.

9. The device of claim 7 wherein a portion of the substrate that comes into contact with the light has an emissivity value of larger than 0.9 and in particular the portion of the substrate that comes into contact with the light is black and a portion of the substrate that does not come into contact with the light is non-black.

10. The device of claim 7 wherein the substrate is in the form of a ring.

11. The device of claim 7 wherein the substrate is made of metals, alloys, metal composites, ceramics, foams or thermally conductive polymers.

12. The device of claim 7 further comprising one or more optical elements selected from a beam splitter, a diffractive optical element, a mirror, a lens, a light guide or an optical switch is positioned in the path of a light beam between the laser diode and the substrate.

13. The device of claim 7 further comprising at least one of the following: a fan or a blower to remove thermal energy from the substrate, a signal processor for detecting a signal of the sample, a portable battery, and a temperature sensor not in contact with the substrate.

Assignees

• Agency Science Tech & Res

Inventors

• Pipper Juergen Hans
• Thulasinga Sankar

Classifications

• B01L7/52 Primary

  with provision for submitting samples to a predetermined sequence of different temperatures, e.g. for treating nucleic acid samples · CPC title

• C12Q1/686 Primary

  Polymerase chain reaction [PCR] · CPC title

• B01L2300/1861

  using radiation · CPC title

• B01L2300/1805

  Conductive heating, heat from thermostatted solids is conducted to receptacles, e.g. heating plates, blocks · CPC title

• B01L2300/1872

  Infrared light · CPC title