High-resolution on-chip fluorescence imaging using photonic integrated circuits

The next big push in microscopy with a large societal impact will come from extremely compact and robust optical systems that will make high-resolution (fluorescence) microscopy highly accessible, enabling both cellular diagnostics at the point of care and the development of compact, cost-effective DNA sequencing instruments, facilitating early diagnosis of cancer and other genomic disorders.

Our team is developing a novel high-resolution imaging platform, based on only a single chip, that will completely eliminate the necessity of standard free-space optical components. This new concept will provide imaging beyond the resolution limit set by the sensor pixel size and the point spread function of an extremely compact microscopy system.

For more background information have a look at : 

https://www.imec-int.com/en/articles/chip-scale-microscope-high-throughput-fluorescence-imaging

In this master thesis topic, the student will contribute to the study of a novel high-resolution imaging concept based entirely on an intimate marriage of active on-chip photonics and CMOS image sensors.

A suitable candidate has a keen interest in experimental work, and data analysis and processing.

The main research objectives are:

• Characterization of structured illumination patterns generated by the new microscopy chips using fluorescence microscopy
• Experimentally reveal the achievable resolution of the full system and the interdependencies with e.g. speed and field of view size
• Feed experimental results back into a system model