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Overview
The SA3800 Spectral Cell Analyzer combines advanced electronics with patented optical technologies to deliver high-quality, reliable analytical data. Integrated automation across the system enables true workflow simplicity.
Its spectral technology enhances sensitivity and improves detection of dim signals by capturing photons across a broad wavelength range (420–800 nm). This approach simplifies multicolor panel design, streamlines workflows, and supports efficient data analysis for both experienced and novice users.
Automation is embedded throughout the entire workflow—from instrument startup and quality control to acquisition, analysis, and system maintenance. Intuitive software wizards guide users at every step, making high-performance spectral cytometry accessible to laboratories of all experience levels.
Spectral Technology
Spectral analysis technology is the foundation of the SA3800 system. Spectral flow cytometry streamlines workflow and yields better data by collecting the entire visual spectrum of light. In conventional systems, overlapping fluorescence is subtracted using color compensation, so less light is collected. Instead, spectral flow cytometers sum the fluorescence together and then use unmixing to mathematically separate the colors. This powerful capability also simplifies workflow, including panel design, and improves visualization of autofluorescence.
A unique prism collection system delivers emitted light to a 32-channel PMT. This produces 34 data points of signal detection for fluorescence and bright autofluorescence to achieve accurate visualizations of fluorescent populations. Researchers can see the complete spectral fingerprint of each fluorochrome from 420 nm to 800 nm.
Product Highlights
SA3800 System Overview
The SA3800 Spectral Cell Analyzer integrates advanced electronics, patented optics, and full-spectrum detection (420 - 800 nm) to deliver high-sensitivity, high-resolution analytical data. Its spectral technology enhances dim signal detection while simplifying multicolor panel design and analysis.
Comprehensive automation streamlines the entire workflow from startup and quality control to acquisition, analysis, and maintenance reducing hands-on time and improving consistency. Standardization features ensure day-to-day reproducibility with a single click, minimizing instrument variability.
Intuitive software, guided workflows, and integrated analysis tools, including FCS Express™, make the SA3800 accessible to users of all experience levels, enabling efficient, reliable cell analysis in any lab environment.
Optics
The SA3800 leverages spectral analysis technology to capture the full emission spectrum (420 - 800 nm), maximizing photon collection for improved sensitivity and resolution. Unlike conventional systems that rely on compensation, spectral unmixing mathematically separates overlapping signals, enhancing data quality, simplifying panel design, and improving autofluorescence resolution.
- Flowpoint™ Detection System precisely monitors the core stream shape and position within the flow cell, as well as the cross-sectional position of each particle. This patented technology visualizes stream stability in real time, ensuring highly reliable measurements and optimal resolution.
- 32-Channel PMT Detection captures emitted light across multiple wavelengths, generating detailed spectral fingerprints from 32 simultaneous data points for accurate signal characterization.
- Microlens Array enhances photon collection by efficiently refocusing dispersed light from the prism onto the PMT array, maximizing signal capture and sensitivity.
- Prism-Based Optical System utilizes a series of 10 consecutive prisms to disperse emitted light with minimal loss, preserving signal integrity and enabling high-quality spectral detection.
Spectral Unmixing
Unlike conventional optical filters - where overlapping emissions are partially lost, the spectral optics of the SA3800 captures the complete emission profile from 420 nm to 800 nm. These overlapping fluor’s are unmixed using a patented Weighted Least Squares Method (WLSM) algorithm to resolve each fluorophore’s full spectral fingerprint, improving visualization of individual markers. Combined with the WLSM algorithm, this enhances sensitivity for dim signals, enabling better detection of rare populations, fluorescent proteins, and fluorochromes excited by multiple lasers.
In addition, the WLSM-based unmixing enables effective separation of autofluorescence by modeling and extracting it as an independent spectral component. This creates a distinct autofluorescence parameter, allowing true biological signals to be distinguished even in highly autofluorescent samples. By minimizing spillover effects and correcting for noise, spectral analysis produces cleaner, more unbiased data ultimately improving resolution, accuracy, and confidence in results.
AutoSampler
Standardization
Spectral Library
The Spectral Library lets users create a personal reagent library that simplifies experiment creation and saves time. An Acquisition Wizard assists users with step-by-step instructions to acquire and analyze single-positive controls for the Spectral Library. Once acquired, the spectral reference for that reagent, including the spectral index, is available for future use. Information from the Spectral Library is available to users with a simple click, improving accuracy and streamlining panel design.
Spectral Library
High Resolution View of the Spectral Library Window
Acquisition and Analysis
All acquisition functions, including instrument settings, are controlled from the Acquisition window. Worksheet tools let users choose how the data is displayed (such as plot types), and customize for their analysis needs. Plots and statistics provide real-time information during acquisition. To increase sample flow to the cuvette, a variable booster lets users set acquisition speeds from low (33 μL/min) normal, or high (250 μL/min) offering flexibility.
Acquisition Menu
High-resolution view of the acquisition window