Optical space-time coding technique in microfluidic devices
First Claim
1. A microfluidic device for optical detection of particles, comprising:
- a substrate;
a microfluidic channel formed on the substrate and structured to carry a fluid sample containing particles, the microfluidic channel structured to transmit a probe light; and
a mask formed on one side of the microfluidic channel and structured to include a pattern of openings along the microfluidic channel, wherein at least two of the openings have varying longitudinal and transverse dimensions with respect to a fluid flow direction across the microfluidic channel, and wherein the pattern of openings encodes a waveform on the probe light that transmits through the microfluidic channel to allow optical detection of a position of a particle in at least two dimensions in the microfluidic channel.
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Abstract
Techniques, devices and systems are disclosed for characterizing particles in a fluid sample by optical space-time coding. In one aspect, a microfluidic device for optical detection of particles includes a substrate, a microfluidic channel formed on the substrate and structured to carry a fluid sample containing particles, in which the microfluidic channel is structured to transmit a probe light, and a mask formed on one side of the microfluidic channel and structured to include a pattern of openings along the microfluidic channel, in which at least two of the openings have varying dimensions across the microfluidic channel, and in which the pattern of openings encodes a waveform on the probe light that transmits through the microfluidic channel to allow optical detection of a position of a particle in the microfluidic channel.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A microfluidic device for optical detection of particles, comprising:
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a substrate; a microfluidic channel formed on the substrate and structured to carry a fluid sample containing particles, the microfluidic channel structured to transmit a probe light; and a mask formed on one side of the microfluidic channel and structured to include a pattern of openings along the microfluidic channel, wherein at least two of the openings have varying longitudinal and transverse dimensions with respect to a fluid flow direction across the microfluidic channel, and wherein the pattern of openings encodes a waveform on the probe light that transmits through the microfluidic channel to allow optical detection of a position of a particle in at least two dimensions in the microfluidic channel. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of determining a position of particle in a microfluidic channel, comprising:
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transferring a fluid sample containing particles through a microfluidic channel having an pattern of apertures spatially arranged on a surface of the channel, wherein at least two of the apertures have varying longitudinal and transverse dimensions with respect to a fluid flow direction across the microfluidic channel; transmitting a light beam through the pattern of apertures to illuminate the fluid sample, wherein each particle scatters the light beam to produce an optical scattering signal at each position along the pattern of apertures; detecting the optical scattering signal with an optical detector configured at a scattering angle formed between the optical detector and the pattern of apertures, wherein the detected optical scattering signal produces a scattering signal waveform; and processing the scattering signal waveform to determine the position of the particle in at least two dimensions. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A microfluidic device, comprising:
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a microfluidic channel structured to carry a fluid sample containing particles along a fluid flow direction from an inlet region to an outlet region, the microfluidic channel including a pattern of openings spatially arranged on a surface of the channel, wherein at least two openings of the pattern of openings have unequal widths in a longitudinal dimension and a transverse dimension along the fluid flow direction; a light source that generates a light beam through the pattern of openings to illuminate the fluid sample, wherein each particle scatters the light beam to produce an optical scattering signal at each position that the particle flows along the pattern of openings of the microfluidic channel; an optical detector arranged in a location relative to the pattern of openings to receive the optical scattering signal and produce a scattering signal waveform, the waveform including a signal peak corresponding to each opening of the pattern of openings; and a data processing and storage unit communicatively coupled to the optical detector, the data processing and storage unit to convert the scattering signal waveform from an analog signal format to a digital signal representation and to store the digital signal representation in a data storage. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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Specification