The present disclosure relates to a spectral device with enhanced stability of optical sensor and an operating method of the device and, more particularly, to a spectral device capable of separating a reference light and a signal light, of measuring the lights by a single sensor, and thus of enhancing the accuracy of equipment, and an operating method for the device.
A spectral device, which is used in an optical system for measuring the properties of absorption, transmission and emission after absorption of a bio-material, basically has a cross-shaped(+) optical layout structure like a Michelson interferometer structure and normally uses one optical sensor. Thanks to its advantages including a simple structure, a spectral device is widely used in various spectrometric instruments for analyzing biological, medical and other material properties.
The principle may be described as follows. A light source with an absorption characteristic, with which a bio-material reacts, is prepared and transmitted toward a sample. The light source thus incident is split into two beams usually by a 50:50 beam splitter, and one of the two beams is designated as a reference light signal and is used as a reference beam for quantizing the absorption rate of a bio-material while correcting the fluctuation of light output. In addition, the remaining half is designated as a signal beam, and a bio-material sample is irradiated by the signal beam. Herein, the reference beam and the signal beam are reflected from a reflection mirror and a biosample respectively and enters an optical sensor through the beam splitter again. For this reason, an amount of original light incident to the sensor is a quarter (¼) of an amount of initial incident light. The size of a signal is reduced as the signal enters a light splitter again, and when a signal penetrates an additional optical system, an unwanted noise signal is further generated. Furthermore, as the signal intensity decreases, the signal is drowned by a background noise signal and becomes impossible to accurately measure.
A technique, which is used to maintain the original size of a signal, completely separates beam paths to prevent two beams split by a light splitter from entering a sensor through the light splitter again and measures clearer signals respectively by using two sensors, but in this case, an additional optical path should be configured so that the size of a system becomes relatively large, and the usage of two sensors brings a further cumbersome task of compensating for a difference of reactions between the sensors through calibration. In addition, as the two sensors have different degradation rates of characteristics over time, it is necessary to check and compensate for the difference at a regular basis.
Furthermore, in the case of an existing technique, since a light sensor keeps exposed to a light source, the background noise level of a signal from the sensor becomes different as the measurement time becomes longer, and this problem often makes it difficult to ensure reliable measurements.
The present disclosure is technically directed to provide a spectral device capable of separating a reference light and a signal light, of measuring the lights by a single sensor, and thus of enhancing the accuracy of equipment, and an operating method for the device.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the description below and will be clearly understood through embodiments. In addition, it will be easily understood that the objects and advantages of the present disclosure may be realized by means of the appended claims and a combination thereof.
Disclosed herein a spectral device with enhanced stability of optical sensor and an operating method of the device. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a spectral device comprising: a light splitter configured to split an incident light into a reference light and a signal light; at least one beam shutter configured to perform control for selectively outputting at least one of the reference light and the signal light and for blocking the two signals together; and a controller configured to provide an absorption property of a bio-material by comparatively quantizing an intensity of the reference light and an intensity of the signal light, which are received into a sensor through the beam shutter.
According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the at least one beam shutter comprises a physical shutter that is mounted on a rail capable of linear movement and is capable of iteratively moving a specific distance.
According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the physical shutter has a hole of a beam block, which the signal light passes through, and a hole of a beam block, which the reference light passes through, formed asymmetrically with respect to a center line of the physical shutter.
According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the at least one beam shutter comprises a rotary shutter with a disc blade structure.
According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the rotary shutter selectively outputs at least one light of the reference light and the signal light, outputs both the reference light and the signal light, or blocks both the reference light and the signal light.
According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the at least one beam shutter comprises: a first rotary shutter configured to control an output of the reference light; and a second rotary shutter configured to control an output of the signal light.
According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the first rotary shutter and the second rotary shutter are shutters with a programmed alternate open/close function that makes them operate sequentially.
According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the at least one beam shutter is further configured to completely block a light from entering the sensor by blocking both a beam path of the reference light and a beam path of the signal light for a predetermined time.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a spectral device comprising: a rotary optical switch that is formed as a polygonal structure, has a reflection means on at least one face of the polygonal structure, and uses the reflection means to provide an incident light as a beam path of a reference light or a beam path of a signal light; and a controller configured to provide an absorption property of a bio-material by comparatively quantizing an intensity of the reference light and an intensity of the signal light, which are received into a sensor through the rotary optical switch.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the spectral device further comprising a reflection mirror at each point where the incident light is reflected by the reflection means, wherein the reflection mirror provides the incident light as a beam path of the reference light or a beam path of the signal light.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the rotary optical switch replaces a light splitter through the reflection means.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for operating a spectral device. The method comprising: splitting, by a light splitter, an incident light into a reference light and a signal light; performing, by at least one beam shutter, control for selectively outputting at least one of the reference light and the signal light and for blocking the two signals together; and providing an absorption property of a bio-material by comparatively quantizing an intensity of the reference light and an intensity of the signal light, which are received into a sensor through the at least one beam shutter.
The features briefly summarized above with respect to the present disclosure are merely exemplary aspects of the detailed description below of the present disclosure, and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure.
The present disclosure may provide a spectral device capable of separating a reference light and a signal light, of measuring the lights by a single sensor, and thus of enhancing the accuracy of equipment, and an operating method for the device.
Effects obtained in the present disclosure are not limited to the above-mentioned effects, and other effects not mentioned above may be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present disclosure. However, the present disclosure may be implemented in various different ways, and is not limited to the embodiments described therein.
In describing exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, well-known functions or constructions will not be described in detail since they may unnecessarily obscure the understanding of the present disclosure. The same constituent elements in the drawings are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a repeated description of the same elements will be omitted.
In the present disclosure, when an element is simply referred to as being “connected to”, “coupled to” or “linked to” another element, this may mean that an element is “directly connected to”, “directly coupled to” or “directly linked to” another element or is connected to, coupled to or linked to another element with the other element intervening therebetween. In addition, when an element “includes” or “has” another element, this means that one element may further include another element without excluding another component unless specifically stated otherwise.
In the present disclosure, elements that are distinguished from each other are for clearly describing each feature, and do not necessarily mean that the elements are separated. That is, a plurality of elements may be integrated in one hardware or software unit, or one element may be distributed and formed in a plurality of hardware or software units. Therefore, even if not mentioned otherwise, such integrated or distributed embodiments are included in the scope of the present disclosure.
In the present disclosure, elements described in various embodiments do not necessarily mean essential elements, and some of them may be optional elements. Therefore, an embodiment composed of a subset of elements described in an embodiment is also included in the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, embodiments including other elements in addition to the elements described in the various embodiments are also included in the scope of the present disclosure.
In the present document, such phrases as ‘A or B’, ‘at least one of A and B’, ‘at least one of A or B’, ‘A, B or C’, ‘at least one of A, B and C’ and ‘at least one of A, B or C’ may respectively include any one of items listed together in a corresponding phrase among those phrases or any possible combination thereof.
A single sensor-based optical system for measuring a bio-material basically has a cross-shaped(+) optical layout structure like a Michelson interferometer structure. A 50:50 beam splitter (or light splitter) is normally used for splitting a light into two beams, and one of the two beams is used as a reference light and the other one is designated as a signal light with which a sample is irradiated. However, since the light enters a single optical sensor by way of the beam splitter again, an initial amount of the incident light is reduced to a quarter when the light is incident to the sensor. In order to overcome this problem, there is a structure that makes two beams from a light splitter individually incident to two sensors.
Generally, when a single sensor is used, a layout structure may be described as in
In the case of
The methods of
In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the main idea is to provide a spectral device that has an optical switch with a specific shape installed in a cross-shaped (+) structure of an existing light spectral system, measures a reference light and a signal light sequentially by a single sensor, blocks the two signals simultaneously during a switching process to prevent a background noise level of the optical sensor from increasing, and thus ensures the sensitivity characteristic of the sensor at a stable basis.
Furthermore, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, when a rotary reflection mirror is used to solve the problem of an ultimate decrease to a quarter of the intensity of an incident light in an existing structure using a single optical sensor, it is possible to provide a new form of spectral device that uses no light splitter, utilizes 100% of the light amount and still includes the above-described function of optical switch.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
Herein, in the beam shutter of
Unlike in
In
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
Herein, a metal-coated mirror or a dielectric-coated mirror may be used as a reflection mirror, the face of a structure itself may be coated with metal or dielectric, and the remaining faces may be coated or be equipped with a structure for minimizing optical reflection. This is merely an example, and a plurality of mirrors may be attached to the structure.
As illustrated in
As shown in
Thus, in a spectral device according to embodiments of the present disclosure, as an additional optical shutter is installed in an existing optical measurement system for bio sensor, a reference light and a signal light may be separated and be measured by a single sensor, and it is also possible to solve the problem of degraded precision caused by an increasing background noise level that is attributed to an incident light during a long-time operation of the sensor.
In addition, a spectral device according to embodiments of the present disclosure may sequentially measure a reference light and a signal light by using an optical switch-type beam shutter in a single sensor and thus stably measure an individual signal, and when the optical switch operates fast and functions as a trigger signal to filter the remaining signals except at a corresponding frequency in a programmable manner, obtain a clear signal.
In addition, a spectral device according to embodiments of the present disclosure may block all the beam paths of a reference signal and a signal light for a predetermined time through an optical switch-type beam shutter, so that the light may be completely blocked from entering a sensor and the sensor may be prevented from continuously being exposed to light and the background noise level itself may be prevented from increasing, thereby preventing the size of a signal from changing over time, which may also lower an error rate.
In addition, as the existing technique requires a structure with a light splitter as an indispensable component, when the amount of light to be incident on a bio sample should be increased, the only solution is to increase the intensity of a basic light source, and this has a disadvantage that an overall measuring instrument is heated by the heat from the light source. On the other hand, in the case of a spectral device according to embodiments of the present disclosure, when a structure with a reflection mirror and a rotary motor is applied the spectral device, no light splitter is needed so that, as compared with the existing system, the output of a light source may be doubled and the amount of light entering a sensor may increase four times.
In addition, in a spectral device according to embodiments of the present disclosure, as for a beam reflected from a rotary mirror, only a light accurately corresponding to a designed optical axis reaches a sensor, and for this reason, if a long beam path is applied, an unnecessary light may be blocked by a beam block.
Although not illustrated in the spectral devices of
Furthermore, a spectral device may include any necessary constituent means like a light source, a reflection mirror, a lens for bio-sample concentration and collimation, and a single optical sensor.
Herein, the source used for the spectral device may include various light sources like laser, LD, LED, and white light.
Referring to
According to an embodiment, at step S1120, the control for selectively outputting at least one of the reference light and the signal light and for blocking both the signals may be performed by using a physical shutter that is mounted on a rail capable of linear movement and is capable of iteratively moving a specific distance.
According to an embodiment, at step S1120, the control for selectively outputting at least one of the reference light and the signal light and for blocking both the signals may be performed by using a rotary shutter with a disc blade structure.
When the reference light and the signal light are received, by the control of step S1120, into the sensor through at least one beam shutter, the intensity of the reference light and the intensity of the signal light, which are received into the sensor, are comparatively quantized to provide an absorption property of a bio-material (S1130).
Although not described in the method of
While the exemplary methods of the present disclosure described above are represented as a series of operations for clarity of description, it is not intended to limit the order in which the steps are performed, and the steps may be performed simultaneously or in different order as necessary. In order to implement the method according to the present disclosure, the described steps may further include other steps, may include remaining steps except for some of the steps, or may include other additional steps except for some of the steps.
The various embodiments of the present disclosure are not a list of all possible combinations and are intended to describe representative aspects of the present disclosure, and the matters described in the various embodiments may be applied independently or in combination of two or more.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2021-0188907 | Dec 2021 | KR | national |
10-2022-0127649 | Oct 2022 | KR | national |
The present application claims priority to Korean Patent Application Nos. 10-2021-0188907, filed Dec. 27, 2021, and 10-2022-0127649, filed Oct. 6, 2022, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference.