Optical substrate for reduced background fluorescence
View Patent ↗A new optical substrate design allows a target to be illuminated with minimal illumination of undesired surfaces within the image collection ray path. The non rectangular substrate provide different surfaces through which a target is illuminated and imaged and thereby prevents illumination rays from crossing the substrate surface through which the target is imaged
1. An optical substrate comprising:
a sample surface;
an image collection surface substantially parallel to the sample surface; and
an illumination surface positioned non-parallel to the image collection surface.
2. The optical substrate of claim 1 , wherein the optical substrate is a non-rectangular optical substrate.
3. The optical substrate of claim 1 , wherein the optical substrate comprises a plurality of illumination surfaces positioned non-parallel to the image collection surface.
4. The optical substrate of claim 3 , wherein each of the plurality of illumination surfaces is non-parallel to the sample surface.
5. The optical substrate of claim 1 , wherein the sample surface is substantially flat.
6. The optical substrate of claim 1 , wherein the optical substrate comprises glass.
7. The optical substrate of claim 1 , wherein the optical substrate comprises plastic.
8. The optical substrate of claim 1 , further comprising an optical substrate attachment.
9. The optical substrate of claim 8 , wherein the form of the optical substrate attachment comprises one or more of a hollow ring element, a strip element or a solid trapezoidal element.
10. The optical substrate of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the optical substrate is about three millimeters.
11. The optical substrate of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the sample surface is about 7.1 millimeters.
12. The optical substrate of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the optical substrate is about five millimeters.
13. A method of imaging a sample comprising:
positioning a sample on a sample surface of an optical substrate;
illuminating the sample with an illumination beam incident upon an illumination surface, wherein the illumination surface is positioned non-parallel to the sample surface; and
imaging the sample through an image collection surface oriented substantially parallel to the sample surface.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the optical substrate comprises an optical substrate attachment, surface and the. illumination surface includes an optical substrate attachment illumination surface.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the illumination comprises illuminating the sample through one or more of the illumination surfaces.
16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the imaging step includes using time delay integration.
17. An optical substrate attachment comprising:
an optical substrate attachment surface aligned with a first plane; and
an illumination surface aligned with a second plane that is unaligned with the first plane.
18. The optical substrate attachment of claim 17 , further comprising one or more additional illumination surfaces, each of the additional illumination surfaces is aligned with a plane unaligned with the first plane.
19. The optical substrate attachment of claim 17 , wherein the optical substrate attachment comprises glass.
20. The optical substrate attachment of claim 17 , wherein the optical substrate attachment comprises plastic.