Patent ID: 7411680

Claim:
A device for counting the number of micro particles, which comprises: a sample chip wherein a sample containing particles may be located at a reading part; a light source that projects light into a sub-area on the sample chip; an object lens facing to the chip to magnify the image of the sample that is formed on the sub-area by the light illuminated from the light source; an image photographing part that photographs the image of the sample, which is magnified by the object lens, in a sub-area on the sample chip; a micro particle counting part that counts micro particles on the sub-area from the image photographed by the image photographing part; and a chip shifter that shifts the position of the sample chip in order that a certain area adjacent to the area photographed just before is shifted to the point where the light is incident, wherein the chip shifter shifts the sample chip by a predetermined distance at every predetermined time interval, and the image photographing part subsequently photographs the image of a certain sub-area adjacent to the sub-area photographed just before as the sample chip is shifted, and wherein the micro particle counting part counts micro particles in the sub-area successively photographed by the image photographing part, adds the number of micro particles in each sub-area together, and calculates the total number of micro particles in the samples; and then, calculates the average density of the micro particles from the total volume of the reading part of the sample chip and the total number of the micro particles.