Optical systems · Precision design
Blood analyzer
A low-cost absorbance-based testing system: an integrating sphere shares each LED wavelength across three channels, and a CMOS sensor replaces a spectrometer.
- Role
- Illumination architecture · Detector assembly
The Blood Analyzer is a low-cost, absorbance-based testing system. I designed both the illumination architecture and the detector assembly. The illumination system uses an integrating sphere to place multiple LED wavelengths onto a shared optical plane and distribute each wavelength across three separate testing channels. A conventional layout would need an LED of every wavelength for each channel; sharing one per wavelength across all three cut the LED count for that function by two-thirds while keeping multiple colors for different tests.
Detection. A CMOS sensor in place of a spectrometer.
For detection, I developed an approach built on a CMOS imaging sensor instead of a far more expensive spectrometer. The sensor images transmitted light so the system can measure optical absorption. The mechanical design combined 3D-printed and CNC-machined components held to tight tolerances for accurate lens positioning. Prototype testing produced a clean, abundant signal, supporting both the optical concept and the lower-cost detection strategy.