Patent ID: 7706419

Claim:
An optical system for microarray laser scanning, comprising: a) an aperture-containing reflecting mirror comprising an aperture and a reflecting surface, wherein the aperture on the aperture-containing reflecting mirror allows an excitation light to pass through, and wherein the reflecting surface of the aperture-containing reflecting mirror allows emission light from a microarray to be reflected; b) a light forwarding system for generating the excitation light, wherein the light forwarding system comprises a first laser generator, a second laser generator, a beam splitter, and a light chopper, wherein the beam splitter transmits light generated by the first laser generator and reflects light generated by the second laser generator, and wherein the light chopper allows light generated by one laser generator to go through while blocking light generated by another laser generator at each time, and c) a first reflecting mirror optically positioned between the first laser generator and the beam splitter and a second reflecting mirror optically positioned between the beam splitter and the aperture-containing reflecting mirror, wherein light generated by the first laser generator is first reflected by the first reflecting mirror before it is transmitted by the beam splitter, and wherein light coming from the beam splitter is first reflected by the second reflecting mirror before it passes through the aperture of the aperture-containing reflecting mirror.