High Speed Planar Array Infrared PA-IR Spectrograph

描述（由申请人提供）： 最近，在首席研究员（PI）实验室开发了一种用于进行红外（IR）光谱分析的新范例。PA-IR使用焦平面阵列（FPA）检测器，由棱镜或光栅分散的光束聚焦在该检测器上。 像素阵列上同时显示的宽频率范围使其成为一种多路复用技术，而无需使用FT-IR干涉测量中使用的复杂扫描机制或计算要求（用于数据的傅立叶变换）。 因此，PA-IR仪器的无移动部件配置提供了使仪器具有“鞋盒”大小所需的坚固性，因此是便携式的。 此外，FPA的增加的灵敏度（比单元件FT-IR检测器高100- 1000倍）可以提供在短至10微秒内累积的IR光谱。 目前唯一的限制来自可用的频率范围（3400-2000 cm[-1]），这是由于在原型开发期间最初仅可获得锑化铟FPA。 该提案旨在设计和构建一种便携式“宽带”PA-IR仪器，该仪器在更传统的IR“指纹”区域（2000-800 cm [-1]）工作，因为汞-镉-碲化物FPA已上市，并显示其具有用于体内疾病预测/诊断的灵敏度和速度。 如果PA-IR仪器与IR光纤采样探头耦合，则应能够表征透镜中的眼组织。 这种光纤PA-IR技术优于目前用于眼睛诊断的常规动态光散射（DLS）系统的优点在于，PA-IR将提供各种组分（胶原IV、γ-晶状体蛋白等）的化学特征。同时存在于“实时”域中，潜在地允许对组分进行定性和定量分析。 例如，PA-IR将允许检测蛋白质聚集（二聚体、寡聚体），并且能够检测蛋白质中α-螺旋、β-折叠或无序构象的量的变化，从而在蛋白质颗粒变得足够大以被DLS检测之前的非常早期阶段检测白内障的发作。 一旦这种“宽带”PA-IR显示出具有高灵敏度，那么其他应用，例如监测医院环境中空气传播的细菌和病毒的存在也变得可行。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recently a new paradigm for doing infrared (IR) spectroscopy was developed in the Principal Investigator's (Pl's) laboratory. PA-IR uses a focal plane array (FPA) detector onto which a beam of light dispersed by a prism or grating is focused. The broad range of frequencies displayed on the pixel array simultaneously make this a multiplex technique without using the complex scanning mechanism or computational requirements (for Fourier transformation of the data) used in FT-IR interferometry. Thus the no-moving parts configuration of the PA-IR instrument provides the ruggedness required to make the instrument the size of a "shoe-box" and hence portable. In addition the increased sensitivity (100-1000X over single element FT-IR detectors) of the FPA can provide an IR spectrum to be accumulated in as little as 10 microseconds. The only current limitation comes from the frequency range available (3400-2000 cm[-1]) due to the initial availability of only indium-antimonide FPAs during the development of the prototype. This proposal is to design and construct a portable "broad band" PA-IR instrument that works in the more traditional IR "fingerprint" region (2000-800 cm [-1]) now that Mercury-Cadmium-Telluride FPAs are commercially available and show that it has the sensitivity and speed for in vivo disease prediction/diagnosis. If the PA-IR instrument is coupled with an IR fiber optic sampling probe, it should be possible to characterize ocular tissues in the lens. The advantage of this fiber optic PA-IR technique over conventional dynamic light scattering (DLS) systems currently in use for eye diagnostics is that PA-IR will provide a chemical signature of the various components (collagen IV, gamma-crystallin, etc.) present simultaneously in the "real-time" domain potentially allowing both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the components. For example, PA-IR would allow the detection of protein aggregation (dimers, oligomers) and be able to detect changes in the amount of alpha-helical, beta-sheet or disordered conformation in a protein thereby detecting the onset of cataracts at a very early stage before protein particles become large enough to be detected by DLS. Once this "broad Band" PA-IR is shown to have high sensitivity then other applications such as monitoring the presence of airborne bacteria and viruses in hospital environments becomes feasible as well.