Lab on a chip

Lab on a chip

The essential components of a High Speed digital microscope are the optics, high speed camera, objectives and illumination built around a machine mounting, optical table or bench stand.

We offer a modular approach to building a High Speed digital microscope for Lab on a chip and Microfluidic microscopy. Our comprehensive range of lenses, cameras, objectives and lights can be integrated to build bespoke systems. These include IR and UV imaging. 

The system has different mounting options including machine mounts, use on optical tables and a range of bench stands. There are various camera adapters and a range of cameras to meet different budgets. 

Standard "off the peg" microscopes can be bulky and costly, can have working distance limitations and be difficult to integrated with other systems. We can advise on matching camera and optics to achieve better image quality and the other system components to meet your requirements.

Please enquire for further data and competitive prices

Considerations:

  • Optics - Zoom (manual, motorised, co-axial, detented) or fixed magnification
  • illumination - LED co-axial (coloured or white) , LED ring lights, LED sub-stage 
  • Objectives - LWD, ELWD or higher NA
  • Mounting - bench stands , machine mounting or optical bench
  • Camera - size, resolution, sensitivity, frame rate, shutter speed and lens mount
  • Software - ease of use and functions, data aquisition, image tracking
  • Costs

Key Features often required:

  • Control of vibration with fan free cameras and illumination
  • Flicker free high intensity white LED illumination
  • Sturdy stands with fine control of focus essential at high magnification
  • Matching resolution of cameras and lenses
  • Exposure times, ie 0.035 ms or 0.3 us
  • Long working distance objectives and high numerical aperture

Recommended cameras :

IDS UI-3130CP,    800 x 600 at 575 fps, 1/3.6” sensor, exposure times down to 0.035 ms

IDS UI-3140CP,    1280 x 1024 at 210 fps, 1/2” sensor, exposure times down to 0.035 ms

Photron mini UX 50/100,  1280 x 1024 at 2,000/4,000 fps, (max 100,000/200,000), 1” sensor, exposure 3 us.   Further data

Lab on a Chip (LOC) integrates several functions on a single circuit known as a "chip" for the analyse of extremely small volumes of fluid down to pico litres. Lab-on-a-Chip may use microfluidics, the manipulation and study of miniscule amounts of fluid. LOC is also closely associated to micro total analysis systems (microTAS). 

These disciplines require the use of high magnification optics with the optical magnification on a camera sensors of x10 to x50, high LED illumination and the use of high speed cameras to capture video and analyse frame by frame. 

Articles on Lab on a Chip where Photron Fastcam cameras were used:

Microfluidic- Exploring bubble oscillation with Photron SA-4 camera

Microfluidic- Single Mammalian Cell with Photron SA-3