System and method for detecting contaminants in a sample using near-infrared spectroscopy

• US 8,993,964 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2011
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chemimage Corporation
• Original Assignee: Chemimage Corporation
• Inventors: Priore, Ryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Kiho
• Application Number:
  US12/932,957
• Publication Number:
  US 20120229796A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,482 Days
• Field of Search: 2503381-3385, 250330-335, 2503361-3362, 250/340, 2503411-3418
• US Class Current: 250/338.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/3563 for analysing solids; Preparation of samples therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/359 using near infrared light
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/65 Raman scattering

Abstract

A system and method for detecting a contaminant in a sample. The contaminant may comprise melamine or a derivative thereof and the sample may comprise a feed material. The method may comprise illuminating a sample to thereby generate a first plurality of interacted photons, collecting the interacted photons, passing the interacted photons through a tunable filter, and detecting the interacted photons to generate a near infrared data set representative of the sample. This near infrared sample may comprise a hyperspectral near infrared image. The method may further comprise fusing said near infrared data set with a Raman data set representative of sample. A system may comprise an illumination source, one or more collection optics, a tunable filter, and a detector configured to generate a near infrared data set. The system may further comprise a second detector configured for generating a Raman data set representative of a sample.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

illuminating a sample to produce a first plurality of interacted photons;

collecting the first plurality of interacted photons;

passing the first plurality of interacted photons through a tunable filter to generate a first plurality and second plurality of filtered photons;

detecting the first plurality of filtered photons to generate a near infrared data set representative of the first plurality of filtered photons;

detecting the second plurality of filtered photons to generate a Raman data set representative of the second plurality of filtered photons; and

analyzing the near infrared data set and the Raman data set to determine one or more of the presence of a contaminant in the sample and the absence of a contaminant in the sample.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sample comprises at least one feed material.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the feed material comprises one or more of wheat flour, corn gluten, soybean meal, and combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the tunable filter comprises one or more of a multi-conjugate liquid crystal tunable filter, a liquid crystal tunable filter, and combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the contaminant comprises one or more of melamine, cyanuric acid, ammeline, ammelide, and combinations thereof.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the near infrared data set comprises one or more of a near infrared spectrum, a spatially accurate wavelength resolved near infrared image, and combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the near infrared data set comprises at least one near infrared hyperspectral image.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises comparing the near infrared data set to a reference data set.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the comparing comprises applying a chemometric technique.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising fusing the near infrared data set with a brightfield image representative of the sample.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

fusing the near infrared data set and the Raman data set to generate a fused data set; and

assessing the fused data set to determine one or more of the presence of a contaminant in a sample and the absence of a contaminant in a sample.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the Raman data set comprises one or more of a Raman spectrum, a spatially accurate wavelength resolved Raman image, and combinations thereof.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the Raman data set comprises at least one hyperspectral Raman image representative of the sample.

14. A system for determining the presence of a contaminant in a sample comprising:

an illumination source configured to illuminate a sample to generate a first plurality of interacted photons;

a collection optic configured to collect the first plurality of interacted photons;

a tunable filter configured to sequentially filter the first plurality of interacted photons and generate a first plurality and second plurality of filtered photons comprising a plurality of predetermined wavelength bands;

a first detector configured to detect the first plurality of filtered photons and generate at least one near infrared data set representative of the first plurality of filtered photons; and

a second detector configured to detect the second plurality of filtered photons and generate a Raman data set representative of the second plurality of filtered photons.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the sample comprises at least one feed material.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the contaminant comprises one or more of melamine, cyanuric acid, ammeline, ammelide, and combinations thereof.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the tunable filter comprises one or more of a multi-conjugate liquid crystal tunable filter, a liquid crystal tunable filter, and combinations thereof.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the near infrared data set comprises at least one near infrared hyperspectral image.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the near infrared data set comprises one or more of a near infrared spectrum, a spatially accurate wavelength resolved near infrared image, and combinations thereof.

20. The system of claim 14, further comprising a reference database wherein the reference database comprises at least one reference data set associated with a known sample.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein the Raman data set comprises one or more of a Raman spectrum, a spatially accurate wavelength resolved Raman image, and combinations thereof.

22. A method comprising:

illuminating a sample to produce a first plurality of interacted photons;

collecting the first plurality of interacted photons;

passing the first plurality of interacted photons through a tunable filter to generate a first plurality and second plurality of filtered photons;

detecting the first plurality of filtered photons to generate a near infrared data set representative of the first plurality of filtered photons;

detecting the second plurality of filtered photons to generate a Raman data set representative of the second plurality of filtered photons;

fusing the near infrared data set and the Raman data set to generate a fused data set; and

analyzing the fused data set to determine one or more of the presence of a contaminant in the sample and the absence of a contaminant in the sample.