Parallel confocal systems for biomedical application

摘要

A parallel confocal method including an optical diffractive element, a Dammann grating, is presented. Dammann gratings manufactured with microfabrication technologies have the ability to generate several beams with identical intensity. An optical confocal system combining with a Dammann grating will form multi-channel confocal optical structures, so that is can achieve a planar image instantly without scanning. This parallel confocal fluorescence detection system has the merits of discarding scanning part, compact structure, real time imaging and detection and high S/N ratio, therefore it is suitable for detection of dye-labelled DNA array chips and for other biomedical applications. Structural considerations and design of a parallel confocal fluorescence setup and experimental results of detecting a dye-labeled DNA array chip are presented in this paper.