Patent ID: 8858886

Claim:
A fluorescence measurement system for performing fluorescence measurements on a multi-well well plate having wells arranged in a rectangular array having a first axis and a second axis, orthogonal to the first axis, the system comprising: a host apparatus, comprising: a well plate receptacle to locate the well plate; and a stage comprising an optical cartridge receptacle, the optical cartridge receptacle elongate in a first direction, parallel to the first axis of the well plate received by the well plate receptacle, the optical cartridge receptacle comprising an electrical connector at a surface thereof, in which at least one of the stage and the well plate receptacle is movable relative to the other of the stage and the well plate receptacle in a second direction, parallel to the well plate and to the second axis of the well plate; a self-contained, multichannel optical cartridge configured to engage with the optical cartridge receptacle, the optical cartridge comprising: a linear array of optical assemblies, each of the optical assemblies comprising a respective excitation light source to generate excitation light for output to a respective well of the well plate and a respective emission light detector to generate an emission light intensity signal in response to emission light received from the respective well of the well plate, a memory to store respective calibration information for each of the optical assemblies, and an electrical connector electrically coupled to the memory and to each of the optical assemblies and configured to connect to the electrical connector of the optical cartridge receptacle; in which the host apparatus additionally comprises a processor to correct the emission light intensity signal received from each optical assembly of the optical cartridge using the respective calibration information received from the optical cartridge for the optical assembly.