What is the chance that two or more separate microbes will pass through BioVigilant’s IMD instruments so closely together that they may inaccurately be counted as one larger particulate?
While such a condition is theoretically possible, in operation, it is highly unlikely in any cleanroom environment. Because airborne particles are randomly distributed in the air and they pass through the interrogation area of the IMD-A instrument at a rate of approximately one per millisecond, the chance of two separate microbes being interrogated at the same time in a relatively clean environment is not statistically high. However, when the airborne particle concentration is high enough (estimated to be greater than 100,000 particles per liter of air, which does not occur in properly operating cleanrooms), the chance of two or more particles passing through the interrogation area at the same time increases to the point of statistical significance. In this case, the detector may give erroneous particle information.
