ARRANGEMENT FOR PROCESSING SIGNALS AT THE OUTPUT OF A MULTICHANNEL DETECTOR

• US 20090250627A1
• Filed: 07/16/2007
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Original Assignee: CARL Zeiss Microimaging GmbH (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Inventors: Liedtke, Mirko, Wolleschensky, Ralf
• Granted Patent: US 7,999,238 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/458.100
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/6408 with measurement of decay time, time resolved fluorescence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/008 Details of detection or image processing, including general computer control
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/0084 time-scale detection, e.g. strobed, ultra-fast, heterodyne detection

Abstract

An arrangement for signal processing at the output of a multichannel detector in the spectrally resolved acquisition of time-variable fluorescence phenomena in a microscope, particularly lifetime measurements, is characterized in that an FPGA (free programmable gate array) is arranged downstream of the output of the multichannel detector.

Claims

1. An arrangement for processing signals at an output of a multichannel detector in a spectrally resolved acquisition of time-variable fluorescence phenomena in a microscope, particularly lifetime measurements;

an FPGA (free programmable gate array) is arranged downstream of the output of the multichannel detector.

2. The arrangement according to claim 1;

wherein asynchronous counters are associated with the PMT channels in the FPGA.

3. The arrangement according to claim 1;

wherein a time clock preset (pixel clock) is provided which determines when the counter state is read out and stored.

4. The arrangement according to claim 3;

wherein laser pulses which trigger sample reactions are correlated in time with the pixel clock.

5. The arrangement according to claim 1;

wherein a time correlation of incoming measurement values is carried out in the FPGA by hardware wiring of different length and/or programmable delay by opening different registers at different times.

6. Laser scanning microscope according to claim 1 further comprising a dispersion means for spectral resolution of fluorescent light and a multichannel detector for acquiring the spectral components in a plurality of spectral channels.