Design And Implementation Of Multi-function Microplate Analyzer

Modern biochemistry technology is based on the cellular level and molecular level, where biochemical analysis is toward high-throughput, high sensitivity, low-dose consumption and dynamics analysis with multiple markers of development, which presented a great challenge to the optical detection techniques and instruments. At present, optical detection technology with high sensitivity and high-speed, especially the current microplate-based optical detection instrument, constitutes one of the key technologies of modern biochemistry analyzers.For biochemical reactions, not only colorimetric analysis, but also chemiluminescence and fluorescence analysis is necessary; enzymatic assay and the immunoassay will occur in the same instrument. In the paper, the three kinds of optical detection mode were designed for multifunctional microplate analyzer, including absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence and chemical/biological luminescence. Through the embedded WinCE system, friendly analyzer software was developed, with embedded SQLite database for management of experimental data. The main function of software includes acquisition, analysis, display and management of biochemical experiments data.Firstly, the principle and design methods of absorption spectra, fluorescence, and chemical/biological luminescence detection for three detection module, was introduced, which is basis of function requirement and specification of multi-function microplate analyzer. Secondly, here introduced the overall design, hardware design and software design; Finally, debugging and testing method was established.The overall design of the system include: WinCE-based human-machine interface, STM32-based control circuit to the mechanical and electrical devices and the serial communication protocol of Modbus-RTU between STM32 and WinCE. Here the selections of master chip, barcode scanner, stepper motor, operating system, were discussed. Here communication protocols between central control module and peripheral devices were designed.The hardware design includes: 1, the drive circuit of multiple analysis optical channel on three modes of spectral absorption, fluorescence, chemical/bioluminescence; 2, the drive circuit of microplate electromechanical structure of the motion, photoelectric detection and bar code scanning; 3, the communication circuit between WinCE-side and electromechanical modules.The software design includes: 1, the application layer protocol; 2, the software on the main control board of multi-functional microplate analyzer; 3, the WinCE-side software for multifunctional microplate analyzer; 4, SQLite-based data management.The experiment was conducted with real samples, and the results display that the instrument achieves detection functions for optical absorption, fluorescence, chemical/biological luminescence, and meets the requirements of practical application, with user-friendly and convenient data acquisition and management, for both local data and remote operation.