SBIR Phase I: A Miniaturized Spectral Imaging Sensor for Biomedical Diagnostics

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是在被称为高光谱成像的商业市场空间。该项目产生的产品将在许多重要行业中应用，通过材料和组织独特的光谱(颜色)特性来识别和表征材料和组织。一个重要的应用是生物医学成像，例如在皮肤癌的早期检测中。早期发现(和切除)黑色素瘤是唯一有效的治疗方法。从最早到最后一个阶段，存活率降低了20倍，治疗成本增加了100倍，误诊是医疗事故诉讼的主要因素，这也增加了医疗保健的整体成本。在小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目上进行的研究和开发将是开发基于光学滤光片的高光谱成像新方法的关键。这项技术将为皮肤癌和其他医疗状况的准确、早期检测提供负担得起的诊断工具。在许多其他行业和应用中，对坚固耐用和高性价比的光谱成像传感器的需求也很大，包括：制药、地理成像和遥感、分析矿物和化学样本、货币或药品假冒检测。拟议的项目将解决高性价比高光谱成像系统的工程、制造和校准挑战。这项技术以一种截然不同的方法绕过了现有商业光谱成像技术的限制。该技术旨在利用现有的基于晶片的制造技术，将大型曲面镜微腔阵列集成为紧凑且制造成本低的高光谱成像传感器中的高精细可调滤光片。拟议的项目将解决凹面微镜制造的潜在可扩展性，研究系统的光学特性以实现最佳性能，并将我们的设备与生物医学光谱成像领域的竞争技术进行比较。该项目将开发建造完全可操作的原型所需的电气控制、数据采集和校准技术。本课题将对曲面微镜的激光加工工艺进行改进研究。该工作计划旨在调查这些关键部件、子系统和制造，以通过对每个潜在障碍进行实验调查来确定可行性。该技术方法为实现最先进的光谱成像设备提供了一个有吸引力的解决方案，该设备可以提高性价比、尺寸和重量以及适用于各种应用的光谱分辨率。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in the commercial market space known as hyperspectral imaging. The products that result from this project will have applications in many important industries for identifying and characterizing materials and tissues through their unique spectral (color) characteristics. One important application is biomedical imaging, for example in the early detection of skin cancer. Early detection (and excision) of melanoma is the only effective treatment. Survival decreases 20-fold and treatment costs increase 100-fold from earliest to latest stage, and misdiagnosis is a leading factor in malpractice suits that also increases the overall cost of healthcare. The research and development performed on this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be key to the development of a novel optical filter based approach to hyperspectral imaging. This technology will allow for an affordable diagnostic tool for accurate, early detection of skin cancer and other medical conditions. There is also strong demand for a robust and high performance-to-cost ratio spectral imaging sensors in many other industries and applications including: pharmaceutical manufacturing, geographical imaging and remote sensing, analyzing mineral and chemical specimens, and currency or drug counterfeit detection.The proposed project will address engineering, manufacturing, and calibration challenges of a high performance-to-cost ratio hyperspectral imaging system. This technology bypasses the limitations of existing commercial spectral imaging technology with a dramatically different approach. The technology aims to utilize established wafer-based fabrication technology to integrate large arrays of curved-mirror microcavities as high finesse tunable filters in a compact and low cost-of-manufacture hyperspectral imaging sensor. The proposed project will address potential scalability of manufacturing the concave micro-mirrors, investigate the optical characteristics of the system for optimal performance, and compare our device with competing technologies in the field of biomedical spectral imaging. The project will develop the electrical control, data acquisition, and calibration techniques required to build a fully operational prototype. Improvement to the laser based fabrication process of the curved micro-mirrors will be researched in this project. The work plan is designed to investigate these key components, subsystems, and fabrication to determine feasibility by carrying out experimental investigations into each potential hurdle. The technology approach offers an attractive solution to realizing a state-of-the-art spectral imaging device that improves the performance-to-cost ratio, size and weight, and spectral resolution for a diverse set of applications.