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:
Sep. 30, 1997
Filed:
Mar. 15, 1996
Robert C Kain, San Jose, CA (US);
Molecular Dynamics, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A fluorescence imaging system that includes an objective that is both achromatic and has an external entrance pupil. The objective also serves as a condenser for the system which substantially reduces the system's cost and footprint. With the objective positioned above a sample so that they are in close proximity to one another, a laser directs a collimated beam of light to a scan device located at the objective entrance pupil. The scan device reflects, refracts, or diffracts the light through the lens to illuminate a spot on the sample's surface. The scan device illuminates a line or an area on the sample surface by varying the angle of laser light, in one or two dimensions, into the objective. The sample emits fluorescent light in response to the illumination. The fluorescence light is collected by the objective and passes through the system along the path of the illumination light. A wavelength-discriminating dichroic filter is placed along the optical axis between the laser and the objective to direct the fluorescent light onto a photo-detector to produce a signal representing the sample surface emitting the fluorescent light. A display device is provided that displays the digitized data in a raster format.