HAND-HELD MICRO-RAMAN BASED DETECTION INSTRUMENT AND METHOD OF DETECTION
First Claim
1. A hand held Raman spectroscopic instrument for pathogen detection comprising:
- a housing having a handle portion, a head portion and an end effector;
a Raman spectroscopic probe encased in the housing and including;
a laser disposed in the handle portion and operable to emit a coherent light beam;
a laser line filter operable to transmit the light beam along an optical path and suppress ambient light;
a beam splitter disposed in the head portion and operable to reflect the light beam from the laser line filter through an aperture formed in the end effector toward onto a sample to produce a Raman-shifted sample signal;
a collector to collect the sample signal and transmit the sample signal through the beam splitter;
a beam expander to collimate the sample signal from the beam splitter and generate an expanded diameter sample signal;
an ultra-high resolution, narrow range, spatially graded filter to filter the expanded diameter sample signal in at least one narrow spectral band based on a predetermined set of discrete spectral bands for a target pathogen; and
an imager for converting the expanded diameter sample signal to image data representative of the Raman-shifted sample signal; and
an electronics assembly including;
a micro-controller for controlling the Raman spectroscopic probe, reading the image data from the imager, analyzing the image data at the discrete spectral bands to detect the presence of the target pathogen, comparing the image data with a baseline Raman spectra and communicating a test result based on the analysis and comparison; and
a power source operably coupled to the micro-controller and the Raman spectroscopic probe.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A Raman spectroscopy based system and method for examination and interrogation provides a method for rapid and cost effective screening of various protein-based compounds such as bacteria, virus, drugs, and tissue abnormalities. A hand-held spectroscope includes a laser and optical train for generating a Raman-shifting sample signal, signal processing and identification algorithms for signal conditioning and target detection with combinations of ultra-high resolution micro-filters and an imaging detector array to provide specific analysis of target spectral peaks within discrete spectral bands associated with a target pathogen.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A hand held Raman spectroscopic instrument for pathogen detection comprising:
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a housing having a handle portion, a head portion and an end effector; a Raman spectroscopic probe encased in the housing and including; a laser disposed in the handle portion and operable to emit a coherent light beam; a laser line filter operable to transmit the light beam along an optical path and suppress ambient light; a beam splitter disposed in the head portion and operable to reflect the light beam from the laser line filter through an aperture formed in the end effector toward onto a sample to produce a Raman-shifted sample signal; a collector to collect the sample signal and transmit the sample signal through the beam splitter; a beam expander to collimate the sample signal from the beam splitter and generate an expanded diameter sample signal; an ultra-high resolution, narrow range, spatially graded filter to filter the expanded diameter sample signal in at least one narrow spectral band based on a predetermined set of discrete spectral bands for a target pathogen; and an imager for converting the expanded diameter sample signal to image data representative of the Raman-shifted sample signal; and an electronics assembly including; a micro-controller for controlling the Raman spectroscopic probe, reading the image data from the imager, analyzing the image data at the discrete spectral bands to detect the presence of the target pathogen, comparing the image data with a baseline Raman spectra and communicating a test result based on the analysis and comparison; and a power source operably coupled to the micro-controller and the Raman spectroscopic probe. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for detecting a target pathogen using Raman-based spectroscopic analysis comprising:
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transmitting a coherent light beam onto a sample to generate a Raman-shifted sample signal; filtering the Raman-shifted sample signal in at least one narrow spectral band based on a predetermined set of discrete spectral bands for a target pathogen to generate a filtered Raman-shifted sample signal; generating image data representative of the filtered Raman-shifted sample signal; analyzing the image data at the discrete spectral bands to detect the presence of the target pathogen; comparing the image data with a baseline Raman spectra; displaying a positive result when the comparison of the image data with the baseline Raman spectra indicates a match. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. The method for detecting a target pathogen using a hand held spectroscope comprising:
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transmitting a coherent light beam from a laser in an spectroscope housing along an optical path through an aperture formed in an end effector and onto a sample to generate a Raman-shifted sample signal; receiving the Raman-shifted sample signal through the aperture; filtering the Raman-shifted sample signal in at least one narrow spectral band based on a predetermined set of discrete spectral bands for a target pathogen to generate a filtered Raman-shifted sample signal; projecting the filtered Raman-shifted sample signal onto an imager in the spectroscope housing to generate image data representative of the filtered Raman-shifted sample signal; analyzing the image data at the discrete spectral bands to detect the presence of the target pathogen; comparing the image data with a baseline Raman spectra; and displaying a positive result when the comparison of the image data with the baseline Raman spectra indicates a match. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification