APPARATUS AND METHOD PROVIDING A HAND-HELD SPECTROMETER

• US 20100078564A1
• Filed: 12/04/2009
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ahura Scientific, Inc. (Thermo Fisher Scientific Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Polychromix Corporation
• Inventors: Day, David, Butler, Michael, Zafiriou, Kostas, Smith, Malcolm, McAllister, Abraham
• Granted Patent: US 7,791,027 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/339.70
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 1/0228 Control of working procedures; Failure detection; Spectral bandwidth calculation
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2003/1213 Filters in general, e.g. dichroic, band
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2003/1286 Polychromator in general
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/02 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0229 using masks, aperture plates, spatial light modulators or spatial filters, e.g. reflective filters
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0256 Compact construction
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0262 Constructional arrangements for removing stray light
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/027 Control of working procedures of a spectrometer; Failure detection; Bandwidth calculation
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0272 Handheld
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0283 using a charging unit
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0291 Housings; Spectrometer accessories; Spatial arrangement of elements, e.g. folded path arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/06 Scanning arrangements arrangements for order-selection
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/18 using diffraction elements, e.g. grating gratings per se G02B
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/2846 using modulation grid; Grid spectrometers
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/32 Investigating bands of a spectrum in sequence by a single detector

Abstract

According to one aspect, an IR spectrometer includes a light source adapted to illuminate a sample, a grating adapted to spectrally disperse a light that has illuminated the sample, a MEMS array adapted to be electrostatically actuated by a controller to control a diffraction of the light, a detector configured to detect the light, and a power source adapted to supply power to the light source and to the MEMS array, wherein the controller is adapted to control the MEMS array so as to manage a power consumption of the IR spectrometer. In one embodiment, the IR spectrometer includes a housing sized and arranged to house the light source, the grating, the MEMS array, the controller, the detector, to and the power source in a hand-held device.

Claims

1. An IR spectrometer comprising:

a light source configured to illuminate a sample with light;

a grating configured to spectrally disperse the light that has illuminated the sample to provide a dispersed light;

a controller;

a MEMS array configured to be actuated to control a diffraction of the dispersed light to provide a plurality of wavelengths of light, the MEMS array comprising a plurality of individually controllable diffractive elements;

a switched voltage array responsive to the controller and coupled to the MEMS array, the switched voltage array comprising a plurality of switched voltage sources configured to selectively turn the individually controllable diffractive elements of the MEMS array optically-on and optically-off responsive to the controller to diffract the plurality of wavelengths of light according to a hadamard matrix; and

a detector configured to detect the plurality of wavelengths of light;

wherein the controller includes a power management system adapted to control the MEMS array to manage a power consumption of the MEMS array; and

wherein the controller is further configured to control the switched voltage array and the MEMS array such that the IR spectrometer is operated as a hadamard transform spectrometer.

2. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, wherein the controller and the MEMS array are configured to control the MEMS array to draw substantially zero current when the MEMS array is in a static state.

3. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, further comprising a probe that includes the light source.

4. The IR spectrometer of claim 3, wherein the probe is configured to provide the light to the sample and receive the light from the illuminated sample.

5. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, further comprising a lithium ion battery power source.

6. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, wherein the IR spectrometer comprises a connector configured to connect to an AC power cord.

7. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, wherein the detector includes a single photodiode detector.

8. The IR spectrometer of claim 7, wherein the detector further includes a transimpedance amplifier and an Analog to Digital converter.

9. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, further comprising a housing sized and arranged to be held in a hand and to house the light source, the grating, the MEMS array, the controller, and the detector.

10. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to identify the sample material from the light that is reflected from the sample.

11. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, further comprising a data interface coupled to the controller and wherein the controller and data interface are configured to transfer data from the spectrometer to a remote processor.

12. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, wherein the spectrometer is configured to operate over a wavelength range of less than about 2400 nm.

13. The IR spectrometer of claim 1, further comprising:

a driver circuit, responsive to the controller, the driver circuit configured to control an operation of the light source to minimize a power consumption of the light source;

wherein the controller controls the driver circuit so that the power consumption of the light source is less than 3 Watts.

14. An IR spectrometer comprising:

a light source configured to illuminate a sample with light;

a grating configured to spectrally disperse the light that has illuminated the sample to provide a dispersed light;

a controller;

a MEMS array adapted to be actuated by the controller to control a diffraction of the dispersed light to provide a plurality of wavelengths of light; and

a detector configured to detect the plurality of wavelengths of light, the detector comprising a single photodiode detector;

wherein the controller is adapted to control the MEMS array so as to manage a power consumption of the MEMS array, and is further adapted to control the MEMS array so as to diffract the plurality of wavelengths of light; and

wherein the detector is configured to be cooled with less than one watt of power.

15. An IR spectrometer comprising:

a light source configured to illuminate a sample with light;

a grating configured to spectrally disperse the light that has illuminated the sample to provide a dispersed light;

a controller;

a MEMS array configured to be actuated to control a diffraction of the dispersed light to provide a plurality of wavelengths of light, the MEMS array comprising a plurality of individually controllable diffractive elements;

a switched voltage array responsive to the controller and coupled to the MEMS array, the switched voltage array comprising a plurality of switched voltage sources configured to selectively turn the individually controllable diffractive elements of the MEMS array optically-on and optically-off responsive to the controller to diffract the plurality of wavelengths of light; and

a detector configured to detect the plurality of wavelengths of light, the detector comprising a single photodiode detector;

wherein the controller includes a power management system configured to control the operation of at least the MEMS array and the light source of the IR spectrometer so that an average power consumption of the IR spectrometer when in use is less than 5 Watts.

16. The IR spectrometer of claim 15, wherein the controller is configured to control the MEMS array such that the spectrometer is adapted to be operated as a scanning monochromator.

17. The IR spectrometer of claim 15, wherein the controller is configured to control the MEMS array such that the spectrometer is adapted to be operated as a filter-wheel spectrometer.

18. A hand-held IR spectrometer comprising:

a light source configured to illuminate a sample with light;

a grating configured to spectrally disperse the light that has illuminated the sample to provide a dispersed light;

a controller;

a MEMS array configured to be actuated to control a diffraction of the dispersed light to provide a plurality of wavelengths of light, the MEMS array comprising a plurality of individually controllable diffractive elements;

a MEMS driver circuit responsive to the controller and coupled to the MEMS array, the MEMS driver circuit configured to selectively turn the individually controllable diffractive elements of the MEMS array optically-on and optically-off responsive to the controller to diffract the plurality of wavelengths of light; and

a detector configured to detect the plurality of wavelengths of light, the detector comprising a single photodiode detector;

a housing sized and arranged to be held in a hand and to house the light source, the grating, the MEMS array, the MEMS driver circuit, the controller, and the detector;

wherein the controller is adapted to control the MEMS array to manage a power consumption of the MEMS array; and

wherein the hand-held IR spectrometer is configured to weigh less than 5 pounds.

19. The IR spectrometer of claim 18, wherein the MEMS driver circuit comprises a switched voltage array comprising a plurality of switched voltage sources configured to selectively turn the individually controllable diffractive elements of the MEMS array optically-on and optically-off responsive to the controller to diffract the plurality of wavelengths of light.

20. The IR spectrometer of claim 18, wherein the controller is configured to control the MEMS driver circuit to actuate the MEMS array such that the spectrometer is adapted to be operated as one of a filter-wheel spectrometer, a scanning monochromator;

and a hadamard transform spectrometer.