Illumination Inside of an Incubators and CO2 Chambers – Part II

I wrote the  first blog post on the topic on illumination inside of an incubator, in 2014. There have been major changes since then. The challenge has not changed; the solutions have. The challenge is to deliver intense light over a microwell plates or petri dishes inside of a chamber where the conditions could damage the LED, and the fan of the LED could disturb the samples.

The solutions we offered in 2014 used the best LEDs available at the time. LEDs have much higher power now, over 6 watts from a light guide for some wavelengths. So now the best solution is to use a light guide coupled LED. When delivered over a single microwell plate the intensity can be ~45mw/cm^2.

Accessories have also improved. Our new  reflector/collimator attachment bends the light down at the sample from the top of the incubator. This saves space and improves the uniformity of the light hitting the sample.

LEDs are available in two formats:

1. UHP-F- single wavelength Ultra High power LED device for liquid light guide. Also available in Ultra-Violet and white light.
   
   
2. UHP-T – a modular LED, optically coupled to a light guide. This allows for combining multiple wavelengths into a single light guide. We can also supply this with an advanced controller with built-in PID stabilization to keep power stable over long periods of time.

Using a 5mm light guide our engineers measured the working distance to cover 1, 2 and 4 microwell plates. Of course, as the spot size increases the intensity in mW/cm^2 decreases.

Please contact us for assistance in choosing the best solution for your incubator illumination requirement.