Patent ID: 6462816
Filing Date: 2002-10-08
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
A parallel capillary electrophoresis system for separating and analyzing the components of multiple chemical samples, said system comprising a bundle of capillary tubes arrayed to have at least portions of the tubes extending generally parallel to one another in a first plane, each tube being adapted for the flow of a fluid sample therethrough, a power source for applying a potential difference between inlet end portions and outlet end portions of the tubes to cause an electrical current to flow through the contents of the capillary tubes at a level sufficient to cause separation in said fluid samples, a light source for emitting light to pass through said capillary tube portions, a photodetector comprising a linear array of photodetector elements for receiving light passing through said capillary tubes, the light passing through each said capillary tube portions illuminating several photodetector elements, each said photodetector element generating a pixel signal corresponding to the light received by said photodetector element, and an analog to digital converter converting each of the pixel signals into a digital value corresponding to the light received by one of the photodetector elements, the improvement comprising:a processor receiving the digital values and generating a plurality of output signals corresponding thereto, each output signal being a function of at least two digital values corresponding to the light received by two photodetector elements, respectively, so that the output signals correspond to the light passing through the bundle of capillary tubes; and wherein the processor generates output signals such that each output signal is a function of at least two digital values corresponding to the light passing substantially concurrently through two photodetector elements, respectively.