1. Photon Counting - Biomedical Imaging
Team Members:
Ben Jenkins
Bassem Faour
Advisor: Jesse Wilson

2. What is it?
Detecting the photon released after exciting a sample with a laser

3. Fluorescence Lifetimes

4. “Photon counting sounds hard”
Yes.

5. Why are we doing it? We want to do it with $1000 .
Olivera gave me $100

6. Prior research

7. Current work 0 s 15 ns 1.5us 5 Stages Protecting the FPGA LVDS Timing
Data Storage / Transfer
Building an image
Diode Protection
LVDS
Timing
Data Storage
Data Transfer
Image
0 s
15 ns
1.5us

8. The Art of Detecting

9. Diode Protection Hard to protect current spikes at such a fast level
Current spikes = nanosecond rise-times
Discounts Fuses
Diodes generally 6V
Solution: USB-LC6
Technology used in most USB 2.0 connections
Low Voltage Diodes

10. LVDS Low Voltage Differential Signaling

11. LVDS Progress Input Circuit with tested measurements: Vhigh = -36 mV
Vlow = -45 mV
Vref = -40 mV
Meaning: LVDS triggering working properly!

12. Data Storage
Binned Histograms

13. Timing Goal: 2ns – 10ns Processor = 500MHz = 2ns resolution
Decays follow an exponential curve
Can be fitted to even just 2 bins with enough data

14. Tryptophan
Glutamine

16. Data transfer Receive Data on the computer and process it using Matlab
Sending binned histograms via serial communication
UART?
Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter
Built in USB interface
Previous work at Cornell University using the RS232 instead

17. Current work (again) 0 s 15 ns 1.5us 5 Stages Protecting the FPGA LVDS
Timing
Data Storage / Transfer
Building an image
Diode Protection
LVDS
Timing
Data Storage
Data Transfer
Image
0 s
15 ns
1.5us

18. Budget Expenses So Far: Altera Dev. Board $700 (Donation)
HSMC adapter for LVDS $70
ESD Protector $5
ESD Protector Adapter $5
Team Budget Remaining: $20

19. Future work Data Storage & Transfer Code
Building an image from the data
So. Much. Testing.
ESD Protection (Lets fry some diodes!)
Actual Sample
Our Tech vs. Professional Tech

20. Questions Sample Questions: Are you still alive? I’d like to hire you.
How can I contact you?
I have this cute friend you’d like.