Quantitative Analysis of Acquisition Speed of High-Precision FLIM Technologies via Simulation and Modeling

In practical applications such as cancer diagnosis and industrial detection, there is a critical demand for fast fluorescence lifetime imaging (Fast-FLIM). The Fast-FLIM systems suitable for complex environments are typically achieved by enhancing the hardware performance of time-correlated single-p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhotonics Vol. 11; no. 10; p. 973
Main Authors Lu, Jinzheng, Miao, Ling, Wen, Jiaxing, Li, Qiang, Chen, Jingwei, Yang, Qiang, Zhang, Xing, Li, Jin, Wu, Yuchi, Yang, Yue, Wu, Sixin, Mo, Wenbo, Xiang, Qiang
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 17.10.2024
Subjects
Accuracy
acquisition time
Cameras
Data processing
Demand analysis
Dwell time
fast fluorescence lifetime imaging
Frames per second
Lasers
Lifetime
Medical imaging
Photon emission
Photons
quantitatively comparison
Streak cameras
synchroscan streak camera
Time correlation functions
time-correlated single-photon counting
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Summary:In practical applications such as cancer diagnosis and industrial detection, there is a critical demand for fast fluorescence lifetime imaging (Fast-FLIM). The Fast-FLIM systems suitable for complex environments are typically achieved by enhancing the hardware performance of time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC), with an acquisition speed of about a few frames per second (fps). However, due to the limitation of single-photon acquisition, the imaging speed is still far from the demand of practical application. The synchroscan streak camera (SC) maps signals from the temporal dimension to the spatial dimension, effectively overcoming the long acquisition time caused by single-photon acquisition. This paper constructs a method to calculate the acquisition time for the TCSPC-FLIM and SC-FLIM systems, and it quantitatively compares the speed. The research demonstrates that the main factors limiting the acquisition speed of the FLIM systems are the photon emission rate, the photon counting rate, the required SNR, the dwell time, and the number of parallel channels. In high-quality and large-scale lifetime imaging, the acquisition speed of the SC-FLIM is at least 104 times faster than that of the TCSPC-FLIM. Therefore, the synchroscan streak camera has more significant potential to promote Fast-FLIM.
ISSN:2304-6732
2304-6732
DOI:10.3390/photonics11100973