Optical interrogation system and method for increasing a read-out speed of a spectrometer

• US 20070031291A1
• Filed: 08/07/2006
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corning Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Corning Incorporated
• Inventors: Piech, Garrett, Webb, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,705,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 422/82.50
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/2803 using photoelectric array detector
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/7743 the reagent-coated grating coupling light in or out of the waveguide

Abstract

A typical use of linear or two dimensional spectrometers is to expose the detector area, and then shift the photo-electric charges out of the device in a serial fashion. If the illuminating signal is spatially narrow relative to the size of the array, this will drive down the percent of the detector that is utilized, as only a relatively small number of pixels are used to detect the beam. The present invention proposes a method which capitalizes on this spatial under-utilization, and alters the clocking scheme to maximize the read-out speed of the pixels containing signal information. This type of clocking scheme raises the optical power saturation level of the spectrometer. Such an improvement in optical power handling is beneficial for spectrometer based detection of resonant waveguide grating biochemical binding, since in such systems the performance is frequently limited by spectrometer saturation.

Claims

1. In an optical interrogation system including a launch system and a receive system, wherein said launch system directs a light beam towards a biosensor, and wherein said receive system includes a detector which receives a light beam out-coupled from said biosensor, a method for increasing a read-out speed of said detector comprising the steps of:

transferring a set of charges/voltages associated with the received light beam from a subset of pixels located within said detector before outputting from said detector a signal representative of a previously transferred set of charges/voltages associated with a previously received light beam.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of processing the signal to determine an optical response corresponding to the previously transferred set of charges/voltages, wherein said optical response indicates whether or not there was a biological substance/bio-chemical interaction on top of said biosensor.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of blocking a plurality of pixels located within said detector such that only the subset of pixels can receive the light beam out-coupled from said biosensor.

4. An optical interrogation system, comprising:

a launch system including;

a light source that directs a light beam towards a biosensor; and

a receive system including;

a detector comprising;

a subset of pixels that receives an out-coupled light beam from said biosensor;

a controller that causes a set of charges/voltages associated with the received light beam to be transferred out from said subset of pixels before a voltage signal representative of a previously transferred set of charges/voltages associated with a previously received light beam is outputted from said detector; and

an analog/digital converter that converts the voltage signal into a digital signal representative of the previously transferred set of charges/voltages; and

a processor that processes the digital signal to determine an optical response corresponding to the previously transferred set of charges/voltages, wherein said optical response indicates whether, or not there was a biological substance/bio-chemical interaction on top of said biosensor.

5. The optical interrogation system of claim 4, wherein said receive system further includes an optical shutter that blocks a plurality of pixels located within said detector such that only the subset of pixels can receive the light beam out-coupled from said biosensor.

6. The optical interrogation system of claim 4, wherein said detector is:

a 1-D spectrometer;

a 1-D CCD detector;

or

a 1-D CMOS detector.

7. The optical interrogation system of claim 4, wherein said receive system further includes a reference detector that receives a portion of the light beam directed towards the biosensor

8. The optical interrogation system of claim 4, wherein said biosensor is a resonant waveguide grating biosensor.

9. The optical interrogation system of claim 4, wherein said biosensor is incorporated within a well of a microplate.

10. A receive system, comprising:

a detector including;

a subset of pixels that receives an out-coupled light beam from a biosensor;

a shift register;

a controller that causes a set of charges associated with the received light beam to be transferred out from said subset of pixels into said shift register before said shift register outputs a previously transferred set of charges associated with a previously received light beam; and

a voltage converter that receives the previously transferred set of charges after they are output from said shift register and converts the previously transferred set of charges into a voltage signal; and

an analog/digital converter that converts the voltage signal into a digital signal representative of the previously transferred set of charges; and

a processor that processes the digital signal to determine an optical response corresponding to the previously transferred set of charges, wherein said optical response indicates whether or not there was a biological substance/bio-chemical interaction on top of said biosensor.

11. The receive system of claim 10, further comprising an optical shutter that blocks a plurality of pixels located within said detector such that only the subset of pixels can receive the light beam out-coupled from said biosensor.

12. The receive system of claim 10, further comprising a reference detector that receives a portion of the light beam directed towards the biosensor.

13. The receive system of claim 10, wherein said biosensor is a resonant waveguide grating biosensor.

14. The receive system of claim 10, wherein said biosensor is incorporated within a well of a microplate.