Design and Manufacturing of Filter Sets for Dual-Color Synchronous Gene Sequencing

Abstract

Gene sequencing is an important means for modern life sciences research and clinical diagnosis. In recent years, dual-color synchronous gene sequencing has developed rapidly due to its excellent properties such as high throughput, fast speed, miniaturization, and low cost. In this paper, a type of dual-color synchronous gene sequencing optical path structure, which is based on the fluorescence-detection principle, was designed. FAM and TAMRA were selected as the fluorophores, which corresponded to excitation light sources with 488 nm laser and 543 nm laser, respectively. Combining the optical system and fluorophores, we designed the parameters of the filter sets, including the details of design methods for dual-bandpass filters and dual-notch dichromic mirrors. Moreover, these filters were successfully manufactured by ion-assisted deposition and magnetron-sputtering methods with extreme precision. The satisfying application effect was demonstrated when these products were applied in customer-desktop medium-throughput gene sequencers.