This invention relates to an optical sensor for testing a biochemical sample. The sensor includes a resonant mirror device 1 and a prism 2 disposed adjacent the device 1 for coupling an input beam of light to the device 1. The input beam of light having a comb spectrum with a uniform spacing between adjacent lines or bands of the spectrum is produced by a comb spectrum source 10. The comb spectrum may be produced by a diode laser with multiple longitudinal modes. The input beam of light is polarized by a polarizer 4 to provide equal TE and TM components. The resonant mirror device is arranged in the paths of said input beam of light such that resonance is excited for at least one of said components, An analyser 11 is arranged to receive said components of the beam of light reflected from the device 1 for producing an output beam having a spectrum including a series of bright and/or dark lines or bands corresponding to the lines or bands of the comb spectrum of the input beam. When a sensing layer of the resonant mirror device is sensitized by the chemical sample, an angular shift in the resonance angle takes place and this causes the lines or bands of the output spectrum to be swept across a reference point where detector means 12 is located to count the number of lines or bands swept across the reference point. The angular shift in the resonance angle is equal to the product of the distance between adjacent lines of the comb spectrum and the number of lines swept across the reference point.
A sensor array is bonded to or molded together with a micro-lens array to form a sensor cartridge. The micro-lenses of the micro-lens array are configured to focus light incident on the sensors, into the sensors. An alignment structure has a mating profile that receives and engages one or more micro-lenses from the micro-lens array to laterally align the cartridge to enable repeatable precise positioning of the cartridge.
Disclosed is an optical sensing device, which comprises a light source emitting a light; a beam splitter; an SPR sensor unit comprising a sensing surface; and a detecting mechanism; and a converting unit converting the first beam and the second beam from the optical device into a two-dimensional interference fringe pattern. From the above-mentioned configuration, an extra phase shift of a detection beam in SPR phase measurement is obtained. The differential measurement approach has shown to achieve a sensitivity figure significantly better than the best result that can be obtained from the prior art in the field of the measurement based on an SPR sensor.
A measuring apparatus is disclosed which includes a measuring unit equipped with a dielectric block and a thin film layer; an incidence system for making a light beam enter the dielectric block so that a condition for total internal reflection is satisfied at an interface between the dielectric block and the thin film layer; and a photodetector for receiving the light beam totally reflected at the interface. The measuring unit is measured a plurality of times, and a change in the state of attenuated total reflection during the plurality of measurements is detected. The sensor further includes a tilt measurement section for measuring the longitudinal tilt of the interface which changes the incidence angles during the plurality of measurements, and a calculating section for obtaining a measured value in which errors due to the longitudinal tilt have been corrected.
Imaging apparatus and method which uses change of polarization state of a light beam passed through a total internal reflection structure by a single reflection at a TIR surface in which a specimen is placed in the evanescent field associated with the total internal reflection of the light beam, the specimen being the subject of biological, chemical or genetic investigation.
A chemical sensor includes a patterned layer having discrete sections, a -dimensional detector array, and a two-dimensional lens array that focuses an optical signal from the patterned layer onto the two dimensional detector array. Typically, the two-dimensional detector array is a charge-coupled device array and the lens array is a graded index of refraction lens array. The chemical sensor maintains good resolution throughout its field of view.
