Glossary of Terms
173
P/N CLS151164 Rev. B
LabChip GX Touch/GXII Touch User Manual
PerkinElmer, Inc.
Optical Calibration
The LabChip GX Touch/GXII Touch instrument reads fluorescence
of a laser illuminated dye attached to compounds present in a
sample. The absolute value of this fluorescence has little meaning
as all computed quantizations, such as concentration, are derived
from ratios of fluorescence to known standards found in the
supplied ladder. Due to component variations in the optical
subsystem, the same sample delivers different absolute
fluorescence on different instruments, making it difficult to compare
the e-grams of similar samples run on different instruments. To
provide a more consistent absolute fluorescence for visual
comparisons, an optical calibration process is included in the
LabChip GX Touch software.
The Optical Calibration uses a calibrated test chip (Test Chip C),
which has a stable, dry fluorescent material embedded in the
channel. Test Chip C is provided with all new instruments. Test Chip
C is factory-calibrated with a reference contrast value written in the
chip RF tag. Each instrument uses this test chip to determine an
optical gain correction factor, which will scale its optical response to
a common standard.
