Patent ID: 11879851
Assignee: BECKMAN COULTER, INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A luminometer comprising:
a light detector configured to:
receive photons emitted from a light source; and
output a detector signal indicating a strength of the light source based on a number of photons received, wherein the detector signal comprises an analog component and a discreet component;

a conversion circuit configured to:
receive the detector signal from the light detector;
generate a digitized signal from the analog component of the detector signal, the digitized signal representing the strength of the light source;
generate a digitized photon count from the discreet component of the detector signal, the digitized photon count representing an apparent number of photons received by the light detector from the light source; and
output the digitized signal and the digitized photon count;

a luminometer controller; and
a processor-readable memory having stored therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the luminometer controller, cause the luminometer controller to:
receive the digitized photon count;
compare the digitized photon count to a discreet-analog crossover value;
output the digitized photon count as a result from the luminometer when the digitized photon count does not exceed the discreet-analog crossover value; and
when the digitized photon count exceeds the discreet-analog crossover value:
apply a calibration function to the digitized signal to calculate an output value; and
output the output value as the result from the luminometer.