EAPSI: Implementation of Ultra-Fast Control to Advance Benchtop Nonlinear Imaging Systems for Clinical Imaging Viability

二次谐波成像（SHG）是一种光子有效“结合”的非线性光学过程，是一种强大的诊断工具，可用于可视化和量化多种疾病（包括癌症、纤维化、结缔组织疾病和心血管疾病）中胶原结构的差异。目前，我们的成像系统中所有的成像硬件和偏振器件的同步效率非常低。本项目利用陈善仁教授在现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）编程方面的深厚专业知识。他在台湾台南国立成功大学的实验室工作。使用FPGA编程，该项目旨在提高潜在临床应用的台式成像平台的速度和效率。SHG成像的多功能性是这样的，它可以与极化技术相结合，用于检测指示疾病早期发病的各种胶原异构体分布。我们目前的成像设置与安装在奥林巴斯BX61直立显微镜上的奥林巴斯Fluoview 300激光扫描系统配合各种偏振光学元件运行。该系统在无限空间中使用液晶调制器（LCM）提供精确的、无运动的激发偏振控制，在光电倍增管（PMT）探测器之前使用机动安装的可旋转glan激光偏振器（GLP）提供发射偏振门控。目前，所有这些极化设备都是通过美国国家仪器公司的BNC-2110连接器块连接的定制LabVIEW程序进行同步的，这种连接器块效率低且速度慢。为了克服这些问题并使我们的系统在潜在的内窥镜应用中更加可行，我们希望实现一个现场可编程门阵列（FPGA），使用逻辑块将我们的DAQ板和硬件以更快的速度和效率互连。该奖项由NSF与台湾科学技术部合作资助。

Second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging, a nonlinear optical process in which photons effectively "combine", is a powerful diagnostic tool for visualizing and quantifying differences in collagen architecture in a wide range of diseases including cancer, fibrosis, connective tissue disorders and cardiovascular disease. Currently, all the imaging hardware and polarization devices of our imaging system are synchronized in an extremely inefficient way. This project takes advantage of profound expertise of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) programming in Professor Shean-Jen Chen?s laboratory at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan. Using FPGA programming, this projects aims for improving the speed and efficiency of the benchtop imaging platform for potential clinical use.The versatility of SHG imaging is such that it can be coupled with polarization techniques for detecting various collagen isoform distribution indicative of early disease onset. Our current imaging setup operates with the Olympus Fluoview 300 laser-scanning system mounted on an Olympus BX61 upright microscope coupled with various polarization optical components. The system offers precise, motion-free control of excitation polarization using a liquid crystal modulator (LCM) in the infinity space and emission polarization gating using a rotatable Glan-laser polarizer (GLP) on a motorized mount before the photomultiplier tube (PMT) detector. Currently, all of these polarization devices are synchronized using custom LabVIEW programs connected through a National Instruments BNC-2110 connector block that is inefficient and slow. To overcome these issues and progress our system to be more viable for potential endoscopic use, we wish to implement a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) using logic blocks to interconnect our DAQ boards and hardware with much more speed and efficiency. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan.