Optical measurement system for detecting luminescence or fluorescence signals

US6191852A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• BAYER HEALTHCARE LLC · DE

Inventors

• Wolfgang Paffhausen · Leverkusen, DE
• Martin Bechem · Wuppertal, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 13, 1998
• Grant date: Feb 20, 2001
• Expiry date: Oct 13, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01N2021/6484
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

In the measurement system for detecting optical signals of microassays, the signal-generating test objects 5 are arranged on an investigation surface of a planar carrier 4. The planar carrier 4 is, in particular, a microtitre plate for biological objects. In principle, the measurement system comprises an optical imaging arrangement which reduces the size of the test objects 4 to be measured in such a way that all the objects are imaged completely on a two-dimensional, photosensitive image sensor 6. For imaging, a high-resolution glass-fiber taper element 1 having a large-area 2 and a small-area end 3 is used in this case, whose end surfaces 2, 3 are selected such that the large-area end surface 2 corresponds at least to the investigation surface of the carrier 4 and the small-area end surface 3 corresponds to the size of the image sensor 6, the ratio of the end surfaces 2, 3 producing the scale of reduction of the optical imaging arrangement in order to image the investigation surface of the carrier 4 completely onto the image sensor 6.