Apparatus and method for system identification

1. A method for analyzing light emissions from a luminescent sample comprising the following steps:

a. providing excitation light to a luminescent sample;

b. detecting emitted luminescence from the luminescent sample;

c. sampling the detected luminescence to create a digital signal;

d. analyzing the emitted luminescence by processing the digital signal with a linear second-order digital IIR filter applying at least a portion of a modified Goertzel algorithm; and

e. transforming the linearly-filtered digital signal using control logic to compute a real portion and an imaginary portion to determine the phase shift between the excitation light and the emitted luminescence.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the real and imaginary portions are used for determining the amplitude of the emitted luminescence.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the excitation step is performed by at least one light emitting diode.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting step is performed by at least one photodiode.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the excitation light varies sinusoidally or as a square wave.

6. A luminescent light measurement apparatus comprising:

a. an excitation light source configured to transfer excitation light to a fluid medium;

b. a luminescent probe configured to transfer emission light in response to the excitation light;

c. a detector system configured to detect the emission light and generate an analog signal corresponding to the emission light;

d. a converter for converting the analog signal into a digital signal; and

e. a digitally-implemented linear second-order IIR filter for applying at least a portion of a modified Goertzel algorithm to the digital signal; and

f. a processor programmed to transform the linearly filtered digital signal using control logic to compute a real portion and an imaginary portion and to determine a phase shift between the excitation light and the emission light.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the excitation light source includes at least one light emitting diode.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the detector system includes at least one photodiode to detect the emission light.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 including a processor programmed to implement the linear filter component to determine a phase shift between the excitation light and the digital signal corresponding to the emission light.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 including a processor programmed to implement the linear filter component to determine the amplitude of the digital signal corresponding to the emission light.

11. The apparatus of claim 6 , where the excitation light source is modulated sinusoidally or as a square wave.

12. A method for analyzing light emissions from a luminescent sample comprising the following steps:

a. providing excitation light to a luminescent sample;

b. detecting emitted luminescence from the luminescent sample;

c. sampling the detected emitted luminescence to create a first digital signal;

d. processing the first digital signal with a linear second-order digital IIR filter applying at least a portion of a modified Goertzel algorithm to create a first filtered signal;

e. transforming the first filtered signal using control logic to compute a real portion and imaginary portion to determine a first phase shift between the excitation light and the first digital signal;

f. providing reference light to the luminescent sample;

g. detecting emanated reference light from the luminescent sample;

h. sampling the detected emanated reference light to create a second digital signal;

i. processing the second digital signal with the linear second-order digital IIR filter applying at least a portion of the modified Goertzel algorithm to create a second filtered signal;

j. transforming the second filtered signal using control logic to compute a real portion and imaginary portion to determine a second phase shift between the reference light and the second digital signal; and

k. subtracting the first phase shift from the second phase shift to determine the phase difference between the excitation light and the emitted luminescence.

13. An apparatus for analyzing light emissions from a luminescent sample, comprising:

a. a luminescent sample comprising first and second surfaces that emanates luminescent light in response to excitation light and reference light in response to reference light;

b. an excitation light source opposed to the first surface so that luminescent light emanates from the luminescent sample;

c. a reference light source opposed to one surface so that reference light emanates from the luminescent sample;

d. a detector of luminescent and reference light opposed to one surface so that luminescent light and reference light are detected;

e. an analog-to-digital converter connected to the output of the detector;

f. a filter connected to the analog-to-digital converter, the filter being a linear second-order digital IIR filter applying at least a portion of a modified Goertzel algorithm;

g. control logic connected to the filter that computes

(1) real and imaginary portions of the filter output corresponding to the luminescent light and then a first phase shift based on those portions;

(2) real and imaginary portions of the filter output corresponding to the reference light and then a second phase shift based on those portions;

h. a subtractor connected to the control logic that subtracts the first phase shift from the second phase shift to determine the phase difference between the excitation light and the luminescence light.

14. The system of claim 13 in which the luminescent light source and the reference light source are illuminated sequentially so that only one source is on at a time.

15. The system of claim 13 in which the reference light source is opposed to the first surface of the luminescent sample.

16. The system of claim 13 in which the detector is opposed to the first surface of the luminescent sample.