SPONSORED: POINT OF CARE
device producer QLife to develop, produce and test the optical filters to achieve this. This was no easy task. Optical filters are composed of hundreds of dielectric layers, each with alternating refractive indices. The light filtering function is triggered when the inter-reflected light waves interfere with one another. In this case, three different filters were used, each one only measuring 4 x 4mm². Delta Optical Thin Film’s experience in this area helped expedite the development of these optical filters. Its coating technology has been in development since the 1970s, letting a single wavelength through, while dimming others by a factor of between 100,000 and a million times. Using the latest dicing equipment, Delta Optical Thin Film has also produced filters as small as 1.5 x 1.5mm² with edge chips well below 50µm. Delta Optical Thin Film has
also developed and optimised its own proprietary coating and filter design software in
recent decades. Its software designs the tooling for the coating chambers where these optical filters are developed, including a unique deposition control software to control these coating chambers. Furthermore, Delta Optical Thin Film has developed software to simulate the performance of the designed filters before they are produced, taking into account typical production tolerances. The firm also uses coating chambers from Bühler Leybold Optics, equipped with their Advanced Plasma Source technology and Delta’s own optical monitoring systems to produce its custom optical filters, and a recently acquired magnetron sputtering technology for even more advanced filters.
This unique combination
of world-leading coating equipment and proprietary software, coupled with decades of experience, enables the rapid development and production of a range of industry-leading filters. Now, Delta Optical Thin Film is turning its attention to
“We already had plans to add a test for viruses to Egoo, but with the current situation, we went full steam ahead”
PoC devices. ‘Our optical filters are all designed for the next- generation of PoC instruments and have been used in clinical applications in the biotech, biomedical and drug discovery sectors,’ Pust explained.
Testing times As demand for PoC devices continues to rise, today’s optical filters face two challenges. First, advancing miniaturisation is an issue. Diagnostic tests that are run in large pieces of laboratory equipment must now run on hand-held devices, where PoC devices require portable, small and robust instrumentation for practical implementation. Second, they must achieve a detection sensitivity at least equivalent to existing methods. In other words, the optics in
a PoC system must be at least as good as the optical systems found in larger pieces of equipment – only smaller. This introduces challenges
for OEMs, as Pust explained: ‘The challenge is to reduce the size of all optics, without compromising the optical output. Hand in hand with the size reduction of the instrument, often opening angles increase to collect a sufficient signal. This has potentially adverse effects on filter performance.’ This is where Delta Optical
Thin Film can help, the company has optimised optical systems for PoC devices to improve the quality of the instrument. Pust concluded: ‘Our background as an OEM supplier of high-quality optical filters for fluorescence microscopy gives us the right background to supply high- performance optical filters for today’s PoC instruments.’ • Find out more about Delta Optical Thin Film’s work in their latest white paper Designing miniaturised custom optical filters without compromising on optical output. EO
New White Paper now online
Delta Optical Thin Film
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Designing miniaturised custom optical filters without compromising on optical output
www.electrooptics.com/white-papers
Electro Optics
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