How it works

The semen sample is allowed to liquefy. The technician uses a disposable capillary to pick up the sample, and then wipes it clean and inserts it into the SQA's optical chamber.

A precision light beam passes through a clear capillary's known cross-section, and is modulated/changed as sperm cells pass by. Obviously, they must be motile to be detected. The resulting small changes in light are picked up by a fiber optic sensor and measured by a phototransistor, or light sensor.

That signal is digitized and fed to a built-in computer, which uses a sophisticated algorithm to analyze the data and generate the displayed results.