Case Study – Technical 1

ITL were presented with a developed assay system for which a novel device was required for the quantification of results. The device had to be hand-held and easily portable to address the market requirements, and yet compete with the considerably more expensive bench-top devices already placed that used a PMT reader system.

The Challenge :

• To design an instrument of significant sensitivity at low cost.
• To design the hardware, firmware and software for the read system.
• To design the casework and user interface.

The Commercial Constraints :

• The disposable design was developed and had to be retained.
• The transfer price of the instrument was to be commercially-viable.

The Market Constraints :

• The instrument was to be hand-held and pocket-portable.
• The instrument should address the ergonomic requirements of the user.

The Solution:

ITL designed a hand-held pocket-portable meter with near-PMT performance whilst using motion-tolerant hardware. The casework and ergonomics were addressed to meet the market requirement and the user interface and firmware developed to produce an easily-evaluated result. The instrument was transferred to manufacturing under the Quality Assurance department control and went on to full scale manufacture at ITL.