Sieving apparatus for a bio-chip

Abstract

The invention is directed to a sieving apparatus for a bio-chip, which has a light source, a HOE unit, a splitter, an objective lens, a filter, and an optical signal sensor. The HOE unit is coupled with a light source, so as to diffract the light into a zeroth order beam and a first order beam. The zeroth order beam has no deflection but the first order beam has a deflection from the zeroth order beam. The splitter is coupled to the HOE unit, so as to lead the two beams to the objective lens, which further leads the two beams to the bio-chip, in which the first order beam is incident onto the bio-chip from an incident angle, causing a florescent light from the sample. The bio-chip also reflects the zeroth order beam. Both the reflected zeroth order beam and the fluorescent light travel through the objective lens and the splitter. The filter is coupled to the splitter, so that an undesired portion of the light beams incident on the splitter is filtered. The optical sensor receives the light beams after the filter. The zeroth order beam is used to generate a focusing signal and a tracking signal. The focussing signal and the tracking signal are used to control the servo, so as to align the optical sensor to the samples for detecting the florescent light. Alternatively, the sensor can be fixed but the bio-chip is shifted by the servo system.