In cooperation with Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Fisba Optik has optimised a laser module to create multiple individually adaptable optical traps.
The module can collect and release particles in a micro-fluidic system for individual and simultaneous monitoring and manipulation. This is for raising the throughput of lab-on-a-chip applications for biochemical reaction analysis and cell cytometry.
‘This laser module helps to speed up the execution of biochemical studies, for example in pharmaceutical drug discovery processes or while testing flavouring substances in the food industry,’ said René Salathé from the EPFL.
For the EPFL/Fisba study an array of 64 individually controllable diode lasers with micro optics capable of generating precise spotlights of only 10µm in diameter was used. Intended for use in stand-alone applications and microscope systems featuring fluorescence excitation, the system can be equipped with any number of individually addressable laser tweezers.
This allows for interactive analysis and manipulation of particles in a micro-fluidic reaction chamber. Micro-fluidic chambers have very small solution quantities, only around 0.5µL is required with a flow rate of 0,008µL/s.