Microarray analyzer based on wide field fluorescent microscopy with laser illumination and a device for speckle suppression.

ABSTRACT

A microarray analyzer was developed to obtain images and measure the fluorescence intensity of microarrays at three wavelengths from 380 nm to 850 nm. The analyzer contains lasers to excite fluorescence, barrier filters, optics to project images on an image detector, and a device for suppressing laser speckles on the microarray support. The speckle suppression device contains a fibre-optic bundle and a rotating mirror positioned in a way to change the distance between the bundle butt and mirror surface during each mirror revolution. The analyzer provides for measurements with accuracy within ± 5%. Obtaining images at several exposure times allowed a significant expansion in the range of measured fluorescence intensities. The analyzer is useful for high throughput analysis of the same type of microarrays.