The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 22, 2020
Filed:
Oct. 04, 2017
Ams Ag, Premstätten, AT;
Martin Münzer, St. Katharein, AT;
AMS AG, Premstätte N, AT;
Abstract
A fluorescence lifetime sensor module comprises an opaque housing having a first chamber and a second chamber which are separated by a light barrier. An optical emitter is arranged in the first chamber and configured to emit through a first aperture. Emission of pulses of light of a specified wavelength is arranged to optically excite a fluorescent probe to be positioned in front of the sensor module. A detector is arranged in the second chamber and configured to detect through a second aperture received photons from the fluorescent probe. A measurement block is configured to determine respective difference values representative of an arrival time of one of the received photons with respect to the emission pulses. A histogram block is configured to accumulate the difference values in a histogram. A processing circuit is configured to compute time-of-flight values based on an evaluation of the histogram, compute a fluorescence lifetime from the time-of-flight values and generate an output signal being indicative of the fluorescence lifetime of the fluorescent probe. A control unit is configured to initiate pulsed emission of the optical emitter.