| US 7,576,862 B2 | ||
| Measuring time dependent fluorescence | ||
| Evan F. Cromwell, Redwood City, Calif. (US); Johann F. Adam, Palo Alto, Calif. (US); Andrei Brunfeld, Cupertino, Calif. (US); Paul B. Comita, Menlo Park, Calif. (US); and Christopher J. Seipert, San Jose, Calif. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Blueshift Biotechnologies, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Aug. 26, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/928,484. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/497803, filed on Aug. 26, 2003. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/497764, filed on Aug. 26, 2003. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2005/0046849 A1, Mar. 03, 2005 | ||
| Int. Cl. G01N 21/55 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 356—445 [356/317; 356/417] | 63 Claims |
| 1. A method of collecting optical data pertaining to one or more characteristics of a sample, the method comprising:
scanning a light beam of a first frequency focused onto a sample surface at or near the light beam's diffraction limit using
one or more illumination optical elements, wherein the scanning is performed in a straight line across the sample surface;
collecting light of a second frequency from a scan line on the sample surface using one or more collection optical elements,
wherein none of the one or more collection optical elements are included among the one or more illumination optical elements;
transmitting collected light from the sample to two or more detectors offset from one another with respect to a path for collecting
the light, wherein each of the two or more detectors is positioned to capture light being emitted from a different vertical
depth of the sample; and
outputting a single non-spatially resolved signal from each detector.
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