Patent ID: 8911668

Claim:
A Lab On a Chip (LOC) comprising: a sample inlet for receiving a liquid sample; a Sample Preparation Module (SPM) coupled to the sample inlet, wherein the SPM comprises: a first mixing chamber; a pump coupled to the first mixing chamber; a hydraulic reservoir fluidly coupled to the pump; a first tuned energy source, wherein the first tuned energy source causes contents of the hydraulic reservoir to expand in order to actuate the pump, wherein expanded contents of the hydraulic reservoir turn an impeller within the pump, and wherein actuating the pump causes prepared sample contents of the first mixing chamber to be pumped into the microchannel; a reagent chamber containing a reagent; a semi-permeable membrane oriented between a second mixing chamber and the reagent chamber; and a second tuned energy source, wherein the second tuned energy source selectively causes contents of the reagent chamber to expand and pass through the semi-permeable membrane into the second mixing chamber to mix the reagent with the liquid sample; a microchannel coupled to the SPM; a light source; an optic module optically proximate to the microchannel; a plurality of lenses within the optic module, wherein each of the plurality of lenses has a different effective focal length for focusing light images of objects suspended within the liquid sample as light from the light source illuminates the objects passing through the microchannel in different strata of the microchannel; and an image processing component within the optic module, wherein the image processing component generates a digital image of the light images of the objects.