Patent ID: 8077313

Claim:
An optical measuring device, comprising: a plurality of microfluidic channels extending in parallel to each other, wherein said microfluidic channels are arranged in a predetermined spaced relationship from each other in the scanning direction while the measuring light beams are irradiated and scanned in such a manner as to be spaced from each other at distances in the scanning direction, and where the microfluidic channel width of said microfluidic channels in the scanning direction is represented by w channel , a minimum distance D(min) from among the distances between two adjacent ones of the measuring light beams in the scanning direction and a spot width W of the measuring light beams satisfy the following expression (1): w channel +W<D (min) (1); and scanning means for scanning a plurality of measuring light beams in a scanning direction in which said microfluidic channels are juxtaposed to optically measure fine particles introduced into said microfluidic channels, wherein said scanning means scans the measuring light beams such that, when one of the measuring light beams is irradiated upon one of said microfluidic channels, the other measuring light beams are not irradiated upon any one of said microfluidic channels.