Abstract:
A biochemical material detection system is provided, which is used to detect biochemical materials. A material to be detected is placed above a sensor module in the system. A light source is guided in by a light emitting device to measure a refractive index of the material to be detected or other parameters related to the material to be detected. Furthermore, a heat source generated by the light emitting device in the system is further isolated outside the sensor module, thereby preventing the heat source from influencing a sensed result to improve the accuracy of the sensed result.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    1. Technical Field 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to a biochemical material detection system for use in detection of biochemical materials, and more particularly to a biochemical material detection system capable of excluding a heat source of a light source to avoid influences on a detection result. 
         [0003]    2. Related Art 
         [0004]    Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) or Localized Plasmon Resonance (LPR) is widely used in measurement of interaction between chemical and biological properties and molecular scale. As a resonance frequency of LPR is highly correlated to the environment at the surface of metal nano-particles, and quite sensitive to the changes in the refractive index of solution in an external environment, or molecules bonded to the surface of the metal nano-particles. The times of light being absorbed may be increased by combining the existing LPR with a multiple reflection principle of an optical fiber, thereby enhancing then sensitivity of a sensor. Such a detection system is referred to as fiber optic-localized plasmon resonance (FO-LPR). Because the FO-LPR optical system is simpler than a conventional surface plasmon resonance system, the FO-LPR optical system is capable of miniaturization and decreasing the cost of the instrument, and arranged to have multiple channels, so as to analyze multiple materials to be tested simultaneously, and effectively improve the analysis efficiency. However, for any sensor based on optical principles, a problem of interferences on a measured signal exists due to background signal disturbance, which in turn influences the accuracy and reliability of measured test data. The changes of the ambient temperature most likely have direct influences. As shown in  FIG. 1 , in a conventional biochemical material detection system  10 , a light emitting source  101  is mainly used as a start point of the optical detection. Light is directly transmitted through a light transmission element (optical fiber)  1021  and enters a light sensor element  102 , so as to sense a material to be detected. However, for the existing biochemical material detection system  10 , the light emitting source  101  is directly arranged at a coupling end of the light transmission element  1021 , so that heat generated in generation of the light source directly influences the accuracy and reliability of data measured by an optical detector  103  at a terminal end of the system. 
         [0005]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , currently the light sensor element  102  in a sensor can be modularized into a chip form, and may be fabricated into a replaceable and disposable detection chip module according to the requirements under different test conditions. However, in application, a measurement result is frequently influenced by a positioning error generated due to the positions of the light emitting source  101  and the light detector  103  after the light sensor element  102  (detection chip module) is replaced. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0006]    Accordingly, the present invention is mainly directed to a biochemical material detection system which can effectively isolate a heat source of a light emitting source, so as to prevent the heat source from influencing the accuracy and reliability of measured test data. To achieve the above objective, the present invention designs a light emitting device, in which a light source module and a first light transmission element form a front-end light incident path (channel), and at a rear end forms corresponding arrangement with a sensor module. Therefore, heat generated in light emission of the light source module can be kept away from the sensor module, while the light can still enter the sensor module through the first light transmission element. Thereby, the heat of the light emitting source can be effectively isolated, so as to prevent the heat from influencing test data measured by the sensor module, and effectively improve the accuracy and reliability of the measurement result. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below for illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present disclosure, and wherein: 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a structure of a conventional biochemical material detection system; 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an implementation of a conventional biochemical material detection system; 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a schematic view of a structure according to the present invention; 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is a schematic view of a light path in an implementation of the present invention; 
           [0012]      FIG. 5  shows another exemplary embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0013]      FIG. 6  shows another exemplary embodiment (1) of the present invention; and 
           [0014]      FIG. 7  shows another exemplary embodiment (2) of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0015]    As shown in  FIG. 3 , a biochemical material detection system  2  is formed mainly by a light emitting device  21 , a sensor module  23 , and a light detection module  25 . Referring to  FIG. 3 , the light emitting device  21  has a light source module  211 , which may emit any one of a laser beam, visible light, and UV light and may be arranged at a light incident end  2121  of a first light transmission element  212 , and the other end of the first light transmission element  212  forms a light emitting end  2122 . The sensor module  23  is formed by a second light transmission element  231  and a light sensor element  232 . A first optical coupling end  2311  and a second optical coupling end  2312  are respectively formed at two ends of the second light transmission element  231 . The first optical coupling end  2311  is coupled to the light emitting end  2122  of the first light transmission element  212 . The second light transmission element  231  is an optical fiber bare wire, a surface of which is coated with a layer of noble metal nano-particles. The light detection module  25  has a detection end  251 . The detection end  251  is coupled to the second optical coupling end  2312  of the sensor module  23  for measuring light guided from the sensor module  23 . Based on the above, a filter element, a light splitting element, or a coupling element may be added as desired in the whole light path, for example, between the light source module and the sensor module. 
         [0016]    As shown in  FIG. 4 , in an implementation of the biochemical material detection system  2 , a material to be detected  30  is positioned above the sensor module  23 . At the beginning of the detection operation, the light source module  211  of the light emitting device  21  generates a light incident source L 1 , which enters through the light incident end  2121  of the first light transmission element  212 , emits from the light emitting end  2122  at the other end thereof, and then passes through the sensor module  23  via the first optical coupling end  2311  of the second light transmission element  231 . At this time, the light sensor element  232  of the sensor module  23  synchronously senses a reflected light L 2  generated from the light incident source L 1  passing through the sensor module  23 . The reflected light L 2  then enters the light detection module  25  via the second optical coupling end  2312 . A detection end  251  of the light detection module  25  is connected (coupled) to the second optical coupling end  2312 . In this manner, the guided reflected light L 2  is measured by the light detection module  25 . It can be seen that light is synchronously generated when the light source module  211  generates the light incident source L 1 . However, the heat is at the first optical coupling end  2311  of the first light transmission element  212 , and thus does not directly contact the sensor module  23 . Therefore, the purpose of keeping the heat away from the sensor module  23  is achieved, and the heat generated by the light incident source L 1  is prevented from influencing the measurement results in light sensing and subsequent light detection. 
         [0017]    Referring to  FIG. 5 , based on the above, the biochemical material detection system  2  further has a heat dissipation ring  27  with a heat dissipation effect arranged at the light emitting end of the light source module  211  of the light emitting device  21 , which may be made of a material having a high heat dissipation coefficient, such as aluminum, copper, or an alloy thereof. In this manner, the heat generated after generation of the light source is then rapidly dissipated through air in a conductive manner by the heat dissipation ring  27 , thereby further reducing heat source remaining between the light source module  211  and the light incident end  2121  of the first light transmission element  212 . Furthermore, the light source module  211  and the light incident end  2121  of the first light transmission element  212  may be arranged respectively at two ends of the heat dissipation ring  27 . As shown in  FIG. 5 , in the present invention, a front-end surface or a whole surface of the first light transmission element  212  may be coated with a heat dissipation layer  29  having a heat dissipation effect, such that residual heat of the light incident source L 1  is dissipated when passing through the first light transmission element  212 , thereby preventing the heat from directly influencing the measurement results in light sensing and subsequent light detection. 
         [0018]      FIG. 6  shows another exemplary embodiment (1) of the present invention. As the current sensor module  23  is wholly modularized to have a chip form, the sensor module  23  used in the present invention may be a replaceable or disposable sensor module  23 . However, after replacement of the sensor module  23 , a problem of incapable of accurate positioning generally exists, which leads to distortion to measurement data (as shown in  FIG. 2 ), and thus a position adjustment device  40  is further arranged at the light emitting device  21  of the present invention. After the sensor module  23  is arranged, the position of the light emitting device  21  may be adjusted by the position adjustment device  40 , so that the light incident source L 1  of the light source module  211  is co-axial with the second light transmission element  231  of the sensor module  23  during light emission. Moreover, the position adjustment device  40  may be a mono-axial or a multi-axial adjuster. 
         [0019]      FIG. 7  shows another exemplary embodiment (2) of the present invention. The position adjustment device  40  makes the second light transmission element  231  of the sensor module  23  co-axial with the light source module  211  and the light detection module  25  after the sensor module  23  is replaced, and thus the position adjustment device  40  may also be arranged at the sensor module  23 , so that after the sensor module  23  is replaced, the sensor module  23  may be adjusted to an accurate position by the position adjustment device  40 . As shown in  FIG. 7 , the light source module  211  may be further arranged with an adjustment device  213 , such that a light emitting angle of the light source module  211  may be properly adjusted as desired, and the adjustment device  213  may be a mono-axial or a multi-axial adjustment device. Furthermore, the light source module  211  may be used with other optical elements, for example, a lens and a spectroscope. 
         [0020]    To sum up, in the present invention, the light incident source from the light source module of the light emitting device is transmitted to the sensor module mainly by using the light transmission element, while the heat in light emission of the light source module is effectively kept away from the sensor module, so as to prevent the heat from influencing the sensor module and the subsequent light detection module. In view of this, after the implementation of the present invention, the purpose of providing a biochemical material detection system capable of preventing the heat source from influencing the accuracy and reliability of the measured test data by effectively isolating the heat source of the light emitting source can be actually achieved. 
         [0021]    However, the descriptions above are only exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any equivalent changes and modifications made by persons of skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention shall be covered in the scope of the present invention.