Patent ID: 9494509
Filing Date: 2016-11-15
CPC Classification: G01N

Claim Text:
1. A particle interrogation system, comprising: a flow chamber having an interior and defining an interior cross-sectional area; a particle delivery tube operably coupled to the flow chamber, the particle delivery tube being at least partially inserted into the flow chamber so as to partially occlude the interior cross-sectional area of the flow chamber and define an unoccluded region of the interior cross-sectional area of the flow chamber, the particle delivery tube being configured to deliver a sample fluid containing one or more particles into the flow chamber; a sheath fluid container in fluid communication with the interior of the flow chamber, the sheath fluid container configured to deliver a flow of a sheath fluid to the unoccluded region of the interior cross-sectional area of the flow chamber; wherein flow through the flow chamber opposes the force of gravity; wherein the sheath fluid flow is assisted by gravity; the particle interrogation system being configured to hydrodynamically focus the one or more particles within the flow chamber; a laser source configured to impinge a laser beam on the one or more particles disposed within the flow chamber after the one or more particles are hydrodynamically focused, the laser source having an output power of less than 10 mW; at least one detector configured to receive one or more optical signals resulting from fluorescence or light scattered from the one or more particles; and signal conditioning circuitry operably coupled to the at least one detector.