JPH02105041A - Particle measuring instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain information of high accuracy relating to particles to be detected by optically scanning the particles to be detected in the part to be detected of the particle measuring instrument and receiving the passed light by array type photodetectors disposed in the position conjugate with the part to be detected. CONSTITUTION:The particles 7 to be detected, such as vital cells or latex particles, are passed to flow by one piece or one lump each in the perpendicular direction of the flow part 6 in a flow cell 5 of the particle measuring instrument by a sheath flow system. The pass of the particles 7 to be detected is optically scanned and the scattered light and transmitted light are released from the particles 7 to be detected. These light rays are condensed by a condenser lens 8. The scattered light is removed by a stop 9 disposed in the position conjugate with an optical deflecting element 2 and only the transmitted light is selected. The transmitted light selected in such a manner is detected by a lens 10 and the array type photodetector 11 positioned behind the stop 9. The respective arrayed photodetecting elements of this detector 11 are conjugated with the optical scanning position in the part to be inspected and only the light rays from the positions to be detected respectively corresponding to the respective photodetecting elements are made incident to these elements. The light rays are selectively outputted and are taken into a memory 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a particle measuring device that performs particle measurement by irradiating a light beam onto test particles that sequentially pass through a test section and detecting information about the test particles. .

[Prior Art] In conventional particle measuring devices, such as flow cytometers,
By irradiating light onto test particles such as cells that flow one by one at high speed through an optical cell and measuring the emitted scattered light and fluorescence, information about the granularity and properties of the test particles can be obtained. The test particles were quantitatively analyzed from this information about a large number of cells.

In the previously filed Japanese Patent Application No. 63-100572, the applicant of the present invention proposed that the flow cytometer scans the irradiation beam in a direction intersecting the flow of the particles to be detected, and detects and stores the emitted light in chronological order. By doing so, we have proposed a particle measuring device that can obtain information on each part of the particle being tested and perform more detailed analysis.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention aims to further improve the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 63-100572, and aims to provide a particle measuring apparatus capable of obtaining particle information with higher accuracy.

[Means for Achieving the Object] The present invention that achieves the above-mentioned object includes: a scanning means for scanning a light beam in a direction intersecting the passing direction of the test particles in a test section through which the test particles pass; An array type photodetector is arranged such that a group of light receiving elements is located at a scanning position in the subject area and a military service position, and a detection output of the light receiving element is selected that is conjugate to the scanning position of the light beam in the subject area. It has means for sequentially storing.

[Example 7] Examples of the particle measuring device of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of a flow cell section. A laser beam emitted from a laser light source 1 is deflected and scanned at high speed in a plane orthogonal to the flow of particles to be detected by an optical deflection element 2 provided in an optical path. Note that a stopper 3 is provided in the straight direction from the laser light source 1 to cut off the zero-order light. The laser beam deflected by the optical deflection element 2 is telecentrically imaged by the imaging lens system 4 onto the test portion of the flow section 6 in the flow cell 5 . By telecentric imaging, the irradiation beam is incident from the same direction at any scanning position of the object, so uniform scanning is performed.

Note that the beam spot shape is determined by the imaging lens system 4.
As shown in 20 in FIG. 2, it is formed into an elliptical shape with a major axis in the flow direction of the particles to be inspected and a minor axis in the scanning direction, so that the shape of each pixel can be made equal in the X and Y directions.

In the flow section 6 in the flow cell 5, test particles 7 such as biological cells or latex particles are sequentially placed one by one or in clusters by a sheath-flow system in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper in FIG. 1, that is, in a longitudinal direction in FIG. washed away. Therefore, when the test particle passes through the test section that is optically scanned in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2, the test particle is optically scanned, and scattered light and transmitted light are emitted from the test particle. These lights are condensed by a condenser lens 8, and scattered light is eliminated by an aperture 9 disposed at a conjugate position with the optical deflection element 2, so that only transmitted light is selected. The selected transmitted light is detected by a lens 10 and an array photodetector 11 located behind the aperture 9. Here, in the array-type photodetector 11, each light receiving element in the array is arranged so that the light scanning position on the test area is conjugate, and each light receiving element receives light from the corresponding test position. Only light is allowed to enter. The deflection scanning of the laser beam by the optical deflector 2 and the selection of the output of the light receiving element to be taken into the memory 12 from among the light receiving elements of the array type photodetector are synchronized. In other words, the light transmission information at each position of the target particle during one scan is determined by sequentially selecting the output of the corresponding light-receiving element in the array type photodetector according to the scanning position of the light beam, and storing the light-receiving output in the memory. 12 are stored one after another. Conventionally, information on each position of the target particle was detected by detecting light at regular time intervals in chronological order, but according to the device configuration of this embodiment,
It is possible to directly obtain optical information only from multiple positions of the target particle by each light receiving element corresponding to each position of the target part to be optically scanned. Note that the array type photodetector 11 may be a one-dimensional array type or a two-dimensional array type.

As described above, each time the test particles pass through the test section, the information data of each test particle is stored one after another on the memory 12. From this data, the size, shape, internal state, etc. of the test particles can be determined. Various particle analyzes can be performed by subjecting this to image processing or displaying a cytogram or histogram, and the calculation means 13 performs these particle analysis processes. The processing results can be displayed on a CRT,
It is output by a method such as printing out.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, by optically scanning the test particles in the test part and receiving the transmitted light with an array type photodetector arranged at a position conjugate with the test part, the test particle can be detected. Highly accurate information about particles can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a side view of the flow cell section. It is. The main symbols in the diagram are

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A scanning means for scanning a light beam in a direction intersecting the passing direction of the test particles in a test section through which the test particles pass;
Selecting an array type photodetector arranged such that a group of light receiving elements is located at a position conjugate to the scanning position in the test area, and a detection output of the light receiving element conjugate to the scanning position of the light beam in the test area. What is claimed is: 1. A particle measuring device characterized by having means for sequentially storing data.