Real-time FLIM implementation by analog mean-delay method

Abstract

Although analog mean-delay (AMD) method was introduced to enhance the imaging speed of commonly used fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) based on time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC), a real-time image reconstruction using AMD method has not been implemented due to its data processing obsta-cles. In this paper, a real-time image restoration of AMD-FLIM is introduced through fast parallel data pro-cessing by using Threading Building Block (TBB, Intel) and octa-core processor (i7-5960x, Intel). Frame rate of 3.8 frames per second was achieved in 1024x1024 resolution with over 4 million lifetime determinations per second and measurement error within 10%. This image acquisition speed is 184 times faster than that of single-channel TCSPC and 9.2 times faster than that of 8-channel TCSPC (state-of-art photon counting rate of 80 million counts per second) with the same lifetime accuracy of 10% and the same pixel resolution.