Lab On a Chip

• US 9,156,033 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2013
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Durniak, Timothy, Friedlander, Robert R., Kraemer, James R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Xu, Robert
• Application Number:
  US13/929,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20130287632A1
• Time in Patent Office: 838 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2200/10 Integrating sample preparation and analysis in single entity, e.g. lab-on-a-chip concept
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/0654 Lenses; Optical fibres
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/0867 Multiple inlets and one sample wells, e.g. mixing, dilution
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/1861 using radiation
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2400/0442 thermal energy, e.g. vaporisation, bubble jet
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2400/0481 squeezing of channels or chambers
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2400/0677 phase change valves; Meltable, freezing, dissolvable plugs; Destructible barriers
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/502715 characterised by interfacing components, e.g. fluidic, electrical, optical or mechanical interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/50273 characterised by the means or forces applied to move the fluids micropumps F04B19/006, of the membrane type F04B43/043
• CPC Class Codes: F04B 19/006 Micropumps F04B43/043 and F04B43/095 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 1/28 Preparing specimens for investigation including physical details of (bio-)chemical methods covered elsewhere, e.g. G01N33/50, C12Qmounting specimens on microscopic slides G02B21/34; means for supporting the objects or the materials to be analysed in electron microscopes H01J37/20 ; laboratory gas handling apparatus B01L5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/1023 Microstructural devices for non-optical measurement
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/1436 the optical arrangement forming an integrated apparatus with the sample container, e.g. a flow cell
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 15/1459 the analysis being performed on a sample stream
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/75 Systems in which material is subjected to a chemical reaction, the progress or the result of the reaction being investigated systems in which material is burnt in a flame or plasma G01N21/72, G01N21/73

Abstract

A Lab On a Chip (LOC) has a Sample Preparation Module (SPM) coupled to a sample inlet, a microchannel coupled to the SPM, and an optic module optically proximate to the microchannel. The optic module holds multiple lenses, each of which has a different effective focal length, such that all fields of focus within the microchannel are covered as objects suspended within the liquid sample pass through the microchannel.

Claims

1. A Lab On a Chip (LOC) comprising:

a sample inlet for receiving a liquid sample;

a Sample Preparation Module (SPM) coupled to the sample inlet, wherein the SPM comprises;

a mixing chamber;

a reagent chamber containing a reagent;

a first semi-permeable membrane oriented between the mixing chamber and the reagent chamber;

a pressure chamber containing a non-reagent fluid;

a second semi-permeable membrane oriented between the pressure chamber and the reagent chamber; and

a tuned energy source, wherein the tuned energy source selectively causes the non-reagent fluid in the pressure chamber to expand and pass through the second semi-permeable membrane to pressurize contents of the reagent chamber, and wherein pressurizing the contents of the reagent chamber forces the reagent across the first semi-permeable membrane in order to mix the reagent with the liquid sample;

a microchannel coupled to the SPM;

a light source;

an optic module optically proximate to the microchannel;

a plurality of lenses within the optic module, wherein each of the plurality of lenses has a different effective focal length for focusing light images of objects suspended within the liquid sample as light from the light source illuminates the objects passing through the microchannel in different strata of the microchannel; and

an image processing component within the optic module, wherein the image processing component generates a digital image of the light images of the objects.

2. The LOC of claim 1, wherein different effective focal lengths are achieved by each of the plurality of lenses being manufactured of different materials having different indexes of refraction.

3. The LOC of claim 1, further comprising:

an effluent reservoir fluidly coupled to the microchannel, wherein the effluent reservoir captures the liquid sample as it leaves the microchannel.

4. The LOC of claim 1, wherein a single object within the microchannel extends across multiple focal lengths of lenses from the plurality of lenses, wherein the plurality of lenses focus on the different strata of the microchannel to create multiple snapshots of different regions of the single object, and wherein the optic module combines the multiple snapshots taken at the multiple focal lengths into a single composite image of the single object.

5. The LOC of claim 1, further comprising:

a control unit, wherein the control unit controls a timing at which images of multiple objects suspended in the liquid sample in the microchannel are captured using the plurality of lenses, wherein the control unit derives the timing by controlling a flow rate of the liquid sample through the microchannel to

     1) ensure that each of multiple objects in the liquid sample is in focus at a point in time at which each object is adjacent to one of the multiple lenses, and to

     2) avoid counting a same object in the liquid sample twice.

6. A Lab On a Chip (LOC) comprising:

a sample inlet for receiving a liquid sample;

a Sample Preparation Module (SPM) coupled to the sample inlet, wherein the SPM comprises;

a mixing chamber;

a reagent chamber containing a reagent;

a semi-permeable membrane oriented between the mixing chamber and the reagent chamber; and

a tuned energy source, wherein the tuned energy source selectively causes contents of the reagent chamber to expand and pass through the semi-permeable membrane into the mixing chamber to mix the reagent with the liquid sample;

a microchannel coupled to the SPM;

a light source;

an optic module optically proximate to the microchannel;

a plurality of lenses within the optic module, wherein each of the plurality of lenses has a different effective focal length for focusing light images of objects suspended within the liquid sample as light from the light source illuminates the objects passing through the microchannel in different strata of the microchannel; and

an image processing component within the optic module, wherein the image processing component generates a digital image of the light images of the objects.

7. The LOC of claim 6, wherein different effective focal lengths are achieved by each of the plurality of lenses being manufactured of different materials having different indexes of refraction.

8. The LOC of claim 6, further comprising:

an effluent reservoir fluidly coupled to the microchannel, wherein the effluent reservoir captures the liquid sample as it leaves the microchannel.

9. The LOC of claim 6, wherein a single object within the microchannel extends across multiple focal lengths of lenses from the plurality of lenses, wherein the plurality of lenses focus on the different strata of the microchannel to create multiple snapshots of different regions of the single object, and wherein the optic module combines the multiple snapshots taken at the multiple focal lengths into a single composite image of the single object.

10. The LOC of claim 6, further comprising:

a control unit, wherein the control unit controls a timing at which images of multiple objects suspended in the liquid sample in the microchannel are captured using the plurality of lenses, wherein the control unit derives the timing by controlling a flow rate of the liquid sample through the microchannel to

     1) ensure that each of multiple objects in the liquid sample is in focus at a point in time at which each object is adjacent to one of the multiple lenses, and to

     2) avoid counting a same object in the liquid sample twice.