Optical Filters Help Detect Covid-19 in Point of Care Instruments

01 Apr 2020

Point of Care (PoC) instruments have various uses in medical diagnostics, including the detection of infectious diseases such as Covid-19, testing haemoglobin levels and monitoring blood glucose levels. These types of tests only require a single drop of blood, saliva, or urine and can be performed by a GP within minutes.

These tests require absorbance, fluorescence, chemiluminescence or Raman detection methods, which all demand optical filters. The optical filter is one of the most important components of a PoC instrument. It is used to attenuate unwanted light and allow wanted light to pass through, so the choice of the correct optical filters can help to optimize the device performance.

Advancements in PoC Instruments

PoC instruments are shrinking to keep up with the continuous advancements in the medical industry. Smaller PoC instruments are required in order to make the equipment easier to transport and could potentially open the door to wearable diagnostics in the future. The newer, smaller PoC instruments still have to match, if not surpass, the quality of existing, larger instruments, and effective optical filters can help to achieve this.

PoC instruments require smaller optical filters as standard, but as the instruments shrink the filters need to be even smaller, and these smaller filters previously presented a challenge of attaining this level of quality. However, technological development is now starting to realise the quality required for successful optical filters.

The development of all-dielectric ultra-hard coatings for optical bandpass filters was hugely beneficial as the coatings are stable for over 20 years. These coatings also provide the highest level of spectral discrimination. 

Optical Filters from Delta Optical Thin Film

Delta Optical Thin Film have been involved in the optimisation of optical systems for a long time and our optical filters are often used in PoC instruments.

We can supply small custom optical filters for PoC instruments, which come with specialized designs to reduce the effects of large angles found in PoC instruments and polarization splitting. Our ultra-hard coated filters are suitable for applications in varied environments, as they do not alter in performance over time or in different conditions. Using latest dicing equipment, the filters can be as small as 1.5x1.5mm² with edge chips well below 50µm. The filters are typically delivered diced to the final size on adhesive tape that can be handled by pick-and-place machines.

Our optical filters are all designed for the next generation of PoC instruments and they have been used in clinical applications in the biotech, biomedical and drug discovery sectors.

If you have any questions about Delta’s entire range of optical filters please contact us and a member of our team will be happy to help.

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