Reconfigurable Sensor Array for Light Microscope
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current light microscopes, particularly those using confocal scanning microscopy, face challenges in achieving high image quality without increasing optical complexity and costs. The use of complex zoom optics to adapt the point spread function (PSF) to the limited number of photodiodes and optical fibers leads to inefficiencies in signal detection and higher costs.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves a light microscope with a control device that allows for flexible binning of photon-counting detector elements into one or more super-pixels. This approach adjusts the sensor array to match the size and characteristics of the impinging light spot, reducing the need for complex zoom optics and enhancing image quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If complex zoom optics are used to adapt the PSF size to the limited number of photodiodes and optical fibers, then the PSF can be spatially resolved, but the device complexity and costs increase while signal detection efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the zoom function from the optical system and relocates it to the sensor array through electronic binning. Instead of using optical zoom elements to adjust PSF size, the system uses software-controlled grouping of detector elements to adapt to different PSF sizes, thereby eliminating complex optical components while maintaining measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/optical zoom system with an electronic control system. The binning configuration is adjusted electronically through the control device rather than through mechanical movement of optical elements, substituting a simpler electronic system for a complex mechanical-optical system.
2Measurement precision
If complex zoom optics are used to adapt the PSF size, then the PSF can be spatially resolved, but signal detection efficiency decreases due to the large number of required optical elements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the zoom optics from the detection path, eliminating the associated light losses. The PSF adaptation is achieved through electronic binning of detector elements, which does not introduce additional optical interfaces or elements that would reduce signal detection efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
By replacing the optical zoom mechanism with electronic binning control, the system eliminates multiple optical elements that would otherwise absorb, reflect, or scatter photons, thereby maintaining higher signal detection efficiency while achieving the same PSF spatial resolution.
3Device complexity
If the sensor array is fixed without flexible binning, then the optical system is simpler, but the ability to adapt to different light spot sizes and imaging modes is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic reconfigurability to the sensor array through flexible binning. The binning configuration can be changed in real-time to adapt to different imaging modes and light spot sizes, transforming a static sensor system into a dynamic one that can optimize its performance for various measurement conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the sensor array universal by enabling it to perform multiple functions through different binning configurations. The same physical sensor array can be adapted for various imaging modes (confocal, two-photon, light-sheet, etc.) and different PSF sizes, eliminating the need for multiple specialized sensor systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The flexible binning of detector elements into super-pixels improves image quality by allowing precise measurements of light distributions while reducing the requirements for complex and costly zoom optics. This results in higher maximum count rates and signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) without increasing optical complexity.
Implementation Method 1
A photon absorbed by the SPAD may be able to inject a carrier in the depletion region and as a consequence, impact ionization may cause an avalanche of carriers that will spread to further regions of the diode and can be detected as a photon count
Implementation Method 2
When the diode is quenched (i.e., there is no further current due to impact ionization and no free carriers in the diode), the voltage at the diode will be recharged by a flow of electric current through e.g. a quenching resistor
Data Source
AI summary
A light microscope has a light source for illuminating a specimen, a sensor array comprised of photon-counting detector elements for measuring detection light coming from the specimen, and a control device for controlling the sensor array. The control device is configured for flexibly binning the photon-counting detector elements into one or more super-pixels.