Patent ID: 7015484
Filing Date: 2006-03-21
Classification: G01J,G01N

Abstract:
1. An apparatus that provides rapid and sensitive quantitative analysis of a sample's fluorescence decay properties, the apparatus comprising: a repetitively pulsed excitation light source for generating excitation light pulses, an output of which generates pulsed fluorescence in the sample; a fluorescence wavelength selector that receives as input a portion of the pulsed fluorescence emanating from the sample and that outputs fluorescence photons whose wavelengths lie within a specified wavelength range, said selector being configured to select two or more wavelength ranges; a photodetector that receives the fluorescence photons within a specified wavelength range as an input from the fluorescence wavelength selector and outputs a time-dependent electrical signal; an array of memory elements that stores a representation of the time-dependent electrical signal as a time-series of analog voltages or charges, wherein successive elements in the array correspond to samples of the time-dependent electrical signal with a time increment of no greater than 4 ns; an analog-to-digital converter that transforms the time-series of analog voltages or charges into a corresponding sampled and digitized fluorescence wave form; and means for storing two or more sampled and digitized waveforms as a multidimensional parameter-time matrix with the waveforms representing at least two wavelengths selected for the photodetector by the fluorescence wavelength selector.