Patent ID: 7687260

Claim:
An optical instrument for imaging fluorescence signals from multiple individual sites, comprising: a planar support with an assembly of the multiple individual sites; a light source that emits light comprising an excitation frequency; a field lens for transferring excitation light to an assembly of multiple individual sites positioned in said instrument, and for transferring fluorescence signals from said assembly of multiple individual sites to an imaging lens arrangement; wherein said imaging lens arrangement transfers fluorescence signals from said field lens to a transducer; an excitation lens arrangement receiving light from said light source and transferring excitation light to said field lens; and wherein said transducer produces computable primary data from said fluorescence signals, wherein said excitation light and said fluorescence signals from the assembly of multiple individual sites are each telecentric on the object side of said field lens, and wherein said field lens is one single field lens arranged to be closest to the multiple individual sites.