US 7,508,505 B2
Apparatus and method for all-solid-state fluorescence lifetime imaging
Felix Lustenberger, Cham (Switzerland); Thierry Oggier, Zurich (Switzerland); Alessandro Esposito, Gottingen (Germany); and Fred Silvester Wouters, Gottingen (Germany)
Assigned to Mesa Imaging AG, Zurich (Switzerland); and Carl Zeiss Microimaging GmPH, Jena (Germany)
Filed on Jul. 20, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/490,482.
Claims priority of application No. 05015860 (EP), filed on Jul. 21, 2005.
Prior Publication US 2007/0018116 A1, Jan. 25, 2007
Int. Cl. G01J 3/30 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 356—317  [250/208.1; 250/214 R; 250/214.1; 250/458.1] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for imaging a luminescent sample, comprising:
a radiation source arranged to illuminate the sample with excitation radiation,
driving electronics for modulating an intensity of the excitation radiation,
a collimating lens for collimating the excitation radiation,
a lens for focusing the collimated excitation radiation towards the luminescent sample,
an optical output port,
a plurality of pixels arranged behind said optical output port for detecting luminescent radiation emitted by the sample, and
driving circuitry for controlling the mutual phase relation of the radiation source and said plurality of pixels,
wherein at least one pixel of said plurality of pixels comprises:
a radiation-sensitive element for converting incident radiation into an electric signal,
at least one storage element for storing the electric signal, and
gate electrodes for transferring the electric signal from the radiation-sensitive element to a selected one of the storage elements, wherein
the apparatus further comprises: active-pixel-sensor (APS) readout architecture for individually reading out the electric signal stored in the at least one storage element of said at least one pixel.