Looking for rainbows in the moonlight

寻找月光下的彩虹

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-04367
• 负责人: Karim, KarimSallaudin
• 金额: $ 2.7万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=637584
• 关键词: Looking; rainbows; moonlight

Imaging performance is still fundamentally limited by detector technology. For example, mobile camera technology that is based on silicon semiconductor, for all its recent advances in spatial resolution and megapixel counts (the latest being >40 Mpixels by Nokia), still shoots grainy looking video clips at night or in low light level settings. Similarly, industrial machine vision cameras installed on high-speed assembly lines cannot resolve very small or dim objects, limiting manufacturing speed. Moreover, scientists cannot characterize new and existing materials that require the imager to have both, high spatial resolution and high sensitivity (e.g. in fluorescence microscopy or digital pathology). A similar problem occurs in medical imaging with sensitivity and readout speeds being a key limitation for emerging flat panel based tomography systems that are poised to replace traditional 3D imaging modalities. Confounding these technological challenge further are sustainability concerns. For example, many detector technologies rely on materials that face a single supply situation (90% of rare earths are extracted in China today) or toxicity (Cd, Hg and Pb compounds are on the decline in large part due to the recognition by most governments of the considerable harm they can cause to biological organisms). The primary objective of the proposed research program is to develop high performance solid-state detector platform technologies using amorphous semiconductors. Target application areas include consumer electronics (e.g. low light mobile video), scientific imaging (e.g. high sensitivity fluorescence micros-copy and digital pathology), industrial imaging (e.g. high speed machine vision), and medical imaging (flat panel computed tomography, 3D mammography tomosynthesis and positron emission tomography). A primary goal of this research program is to build two compelling technology demonstrator, one for the consumer electronics sector and the other for the medical imaging sector. The first compelling demonstration will be to capture a high-resolution color image of a rainbow in the moonlight using solid-state semiconductor imager technology. The second compelling demonstration will be to image a breast cancer specimen using a small scale 1" prototype of a high-resolution, dual energy, single photon counting X-ray imager. Both consumer electronics and medical imaging sectors represent the best of the high-end manufacturing industry – highly competitive, extremely lucrative and strategically important drivers for new technologies that spawn new industries and substantial growth in existing industries. An inspiring demonstrator is necessary to (1) attract a critical mass of researchers to sustain the new digital imaging platform that is being developed and (2) to encourage local existing or start-up companies to step up and enter a globally competitive industry.

成像性能仍然从根本上受到探测器技术的限制。例如，基于硅半导体的移动摄像头技术尽管在空间分辨率和百万像素数方面取得了最新进展（诺基亚最新的像素数超过 40 Mpixels），但在夜间或弱光环境下拍摄的视频剪辑仍然具有颗粒感。同样，安装在高速装配线上的工业机器视觉相机无法分辨非常小或昏暗的物体，从而限制了制造速度。此外，科学家无法表征需要成像仪同时具有高空间分辨率和高灵敏度的新材料和现有材料（例如在荧光显微镜或数字病理学中）。类似的问题也出现在医学成像中，灵敏度和读出速度是新兴平板断层扫描系统的主要限制，这些系统有望取代传统的 3D 成像模式。进一步混淆这些技术挑战的是可持续性问题。例如，许多探测器技术所依赖的材料面临单一供应情况（当今 90% 的稀土是在中国提取的）或毒性（镉、汞和铅化合物在很大程度上由于大多数政府认识到它们可能对生物有机体造成相当大的危害而在减少）。拟议研究计划的主要目标是开发使用非晶半导体的高性能固态探测器平台技术。目标应用领域包括消费电子产品（例如低光移动视频）、科学成像（例如高灵敏度荧光显微镜和数字病理学）、工业成像（例如高速机器视觉）和医学成像（平板计算机断层扫描、3D 乳房X线断层扫描和正电子发射断层扫描）。该研究计划的主要目标是建立两个引人注目的技术演示器，一个用于消费电子领域，另一个用于医学成像领域。第一个引人注目的演示将是使用固态半导体成像器技术捕获月光下彩虹的高分辨率彩色图像。第二个引人注目的演示将是使用高分辨率、双能、单光子计数 X 射线成像仪的小型 1" 原型对乳腺癌样本进行成像。消费电子产品和医疗成像领域都代表了高端制造业的精华——竞争激烈、利润丰厚，对催生新产业和现有产业大幅增长的新技术具有战略重要的驱动力。一个鼓舞人心的示范是必要的，以 (1) 吸引 足够数量的研究人员来维持正在开发的新数字成像平台，以及（2）鼓励当地现有或初创公司加快步伐并进入具有全球竞争力的行业。