Patent Application
20130149197
This invention is relative to a biotechnology detection device with Optical Fibers and LEDs.
In a common hospital or clinic diagnosis can be executed after taking an X-ray photograph and sending the X-ray photograph to the doctor's computer. However, patient laboratory test samples may take several days or weeks to obtain the results. These laboratory samples include blood or urine for hepatitis, cholesterol, triglyceride, or other tests. Laboratory testing spent lot of precious diagnostic time.
Variable biotechnology detection devices have been developed to detect samples based on the changes of refractive index, using material attached on metal film, bonding, offset of resonant angle, or a change in the incident light resonant wavelength. All such instruments are designed according to the surface plasma resonance principle. Currently, the structures used to excite the surface plasma wave are comprised mainly of prism based surface plasma resonance, raster based surface plasma resonance, or optical waveguide based surface plasma resonance.
Optical fiber based surface plasma resonance technology aims mainly to shrink detectors to achieve miniaturization and portable advantages. The early optical fiber based detector was created by removing 10 mm cladding from a multi-mode optical fiber or plastic optical fiber and then plating a layer of silver film. Exciting the silver film create surface plasma resonance by an incident white light, used to detect sucrose with different refractive indexes for determining the linear relationship. This optical fiber based detector possesses simple functions, miniaturization and portable. Reflection based optical fiber detectors with gold nano particles bonded to the optical fiber surface improved multiple-function detection and improved the concentration detection accuracy.
However, reflection based optical fiber detectors have complicated processes, for example, a gold nano particle layer is plated onto the end of the optical fiber. A ligand layer is then formed onto the gold nano particle layer where the sample will be coated. These additional processes make manufacturing difficult and increase the cost. Therefore, the traditional biotechnology detection devices possess manufacturing drawbacks.
In view of the above-mentioned issue, this invention provides an optical fiber based biotechnology detection device that employs a light emitting diode with a multi-mode optical fiber or plastic optical fiber to perform the examination.
This invention is designed to help hospitals or the clinics obtain testing results quickly to save hospital resources and diagnose/treat patients immediately.
A second purpose of this invention is to simplify optical fiber detector manufacturing to reduce the cost.
This invention provides a biotechnology detecting device with optical fibers comprising: a light source for emitting a short-wavelength light; a first optical fiber having a first end connected to the light source; a prism having a first surface and a second surface, wherein the first surface is connected to a second end of the first optical fiber and coated with a first antireflective layer to be passed through by the short-wavelength light; a second optical fiber having a first end connected to the second surface of the prism and a second end contacted with a sample blended with a fluorescent agent, wherein the fluorescent agent emits a long-wavelength light after being excited by the short-wavelength light, the long-wavelength light will be conveyed to the second surface of the prism along the second optical fiber, and the second surface is coated with a first high reflective layer to reflect a part of the long-wavelength light; a third optical fiber having a first end connected to the second surface of the prism to convey the part of the long-wavelength light; and a detector connected to a second end of the third optical fiber for detecting the part of the long-wavelength light to detect intermolecular interactions.
This invention provides a biotechnology detecting device with optical fibers comprising: a light source; a first optical fiber having a first end connected to the light source; a prism having a first surface and a second surface, wherein the first surface is connected to a second end of the first optical fiber and coated with a first antireflective layer which allows a light with any wavelength to pass through; a second optical fiber having a first end connected to the second surface of the prism and a second end smeared with a sample ; a mirror placed near the second end of the second optical fiber; a third optical fiber having a first end connected to the second surface of the prism, wherein the second surface is coated with a second high-reflective layer to reflect the light with any wavelength to the third optical fiber; and a detector connected to a second end of the third optical fiber for detecting signals transmitted by the light with any wavelength.
This invention provides a biotechnology detecting device with optical fibers comprising: a light source for providing a light; an optical fiber with a front end connected with the light source and a rear end smeared with a sample, wherein the light from the light source arrives the sample smeared on the rear end through the optical fiber; and a detector located outside the optical fiber for detecting a signal transmitted by the light passing through the sample and calculating concentration and properties of the sample. Based on the above-mentioned technologies, the invention can calculate the concentration and property of the sample on the basis of the change in signal from the sample. Lights of different wavelengths are used to examine different detection items. This invention can achieve the test results without a specific treatment on the optical fiber, thus solving the disadvantages of the traditional technologies. This invention employs a light emitting diode as the light source. An optional spherical lens can be mounted before the light emitting diode to increase the lighting efficiency. This invention uses less electricity than the traditional biotechnology detection device, which uses a laser as the light source.
The above-mentioned content is used to clarify the purposes of the present invention, the technical means to achieve these purposes, and the advantages resulting from the invention. The present invention can be understood based on the following preferred description embodiments, the accompanying drawings and the claims.
Preferred embodiments and aspects of the invention will be described to explain the scope, structures and procedures of the invention. In addition to the preferred embodiments of the specification, the present invention can be widely applied in other embodiments.
The prism 103 having a first surface and a second surface, wherein the first surface is connected to a second end of the first optical fiber 102, which is used to control the direction the light is conveyed. Specifically, the first surface of the prism 103, which faces the surface of the first optical fiber 102, can be coated with a first antireflective layer against the short-wavelength light to convey the short-wavelength light into the second optical fiber 104 without affecting the prism 103. The second optical fiber 104 has a first end connected to the second surface of the prism 103, and a second end contacted with a sample blended with a fluorescent agent. The short-wavelength light that passes through prism 103 can be conveyed by the second optical fiber. The end 104a of the second optical fiber 104 can be coated by the test sample, for example, blood, saliva, or urine. The sample can be mixed with a fluorescent agent.
After the sample absorbs the short-wavelength light, the fluorescent agent, which is excited, can be recovered to the stable energy lever and release the long-wavelength light. The released long-wavelength light radiates outwardly into the surrounding, but about 50% of the long-wavelength light will be conveyed back into prism 103 along the second optical fiber 104 because the fluorescent agent is coated onto the end 104a of the second optical fiber 104. The light in the optical fiber can only be conveyed forward or backward. The second prism 103 surface is coated by a high reflective layer against the long-wavelength light to reflect the long-wavelength light into the third optical fiber 105.
The third optical fiber 105 has a first end connected to the second surface of the prism 103 to convey the part of the long-wavelength light. The second optical fiber 104 forms a certain angle to reflect the long-wavelength light into the third optical fiber 105 by the high reflective layer of the second surface.
The detector 106 is connected to a second end of the third optical fiber 105 to receive the long-wavelength light from the third optical fiber 105, and detects the change in such signal to determine intermolecular interactions or the concentration or other sample property.
The first optical fiber 102, the second optical fiber 104, and the third optical fiber 105 are made of multi-mode optical fiber or plastic optical fiber and can convey back the light representative of the sample concentration without the complicated process. For example, the traditional optical fiber in commercialization provides the specification of 300 μm core diameter, 330 μm cladding thickness, 370 μm coating thickness and 400 db/km attenuation under 250 nm wave length light.
Among them, the light source 304 is preferred to be a light emitting diode and a spherical lens 302 mounted between the light source 304 and the optical fiber 301 to increase the coupling efficiency that the light emitting diode radiates into the optical fiber 301. Optical fiber 301 is preferred as the multi-mode optical fiber or plastic optical fiber. The user can coat a sample onto the end 301a of the optical fiber 301. The light conveyed through the optical fiber 301 to the detector 303, is affected by the sample concentration, allowing the detector 303 to determine the sample concentration or other property based on the change in the signal. This invention provides a mechanism that needs neither optical fiber processing nor a prism supplement or splitter to detect the biological sample using a simple light structure, thus reducing the manufacturing cost.
The biotechnology detecting device in
The above context is the preferred embodiment of the present invention. Skilled persons in the art should be able to understand that the specification is used to illustrate the invention rather than limit the scope of the invention. The scope of claims should be defined by the following claims and their equivalents. Skilled persons in the art can change or modify the technique context recited in the specification to achieve the equivalent designation or modification, which should be read in the following claims, without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100145657 | Dec 2011 | TW | national |
