Arrangement for optically reading out the information from substrates having a multiplicity of individual samples

Abstract

An arrangement is disclosed for optically reading out the information from substrates having a multiplicity of individual samples, in particular for analyzing chemical and biological sample carriers. The arrangement presents a new possibility for optically reading out the information from matrix-type substrates having a multiplicity of individual samples which allows a fast read-out of a radiation which is influenced by the individual samples with a high degree of sensitivity. This possibility is achieved by the fact that, in the case of optically reading a matrix-type substrate having a multiplicity of metrically ordered pixels, the receiver that is provided is an individual receiver which has high sensitivity and a uniform receiver area, an electrooptical matrix and also an imaging optical system are present, each substrate pixel being assigned to a matrix pixel region by the imaging optical system, and the matrix can be driven in such a way that matrix regions which allow exclusively the feeding of radiation from a substrate pixel to the receiver can be switched separately. Radiation quantities from in each case at least one substrate pixel successively impinging on the receiver over a suitably chosen time interval. The result is that it is possible to evaluate a series of measured radiation quantities from selected sequences of substrate pixels at the output of the receiver.