MicroFPGA: An affordable FPGA platform for microscope control
Modern microscopy relies increasingly on microscope automation to improve throughput, ensure reproducibility or observe rare events. Automation requires computer control of the important elements of the microscope. Furthermore, optical elements that are usually fixed or manually movable can be place...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-03-01
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| Series: | HardwareX |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468067223000147 |
| _version_ | 1797884455742865408 |
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| author | Joran Deschamps Christian Kieser Philipp Hoess Takahiro Deguchi Jonas Ries |
| author_facet | Joran Deschamps Christian Kieser Philipp Hoess Takahiro Deguchi Jonas Ries |
| author_sort | Joran Deschamps |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Modern microscopy relies increasingly on microscope automation to improve throughput, ensure reproducibility or observe rare events. Automation requires computer control of the important elements of the microscope. Furthermore, optical elements that are usually fixed or manually movable can be placed on electronically-controllable elements. In most cases, a central electronics board is necessary to generate the control signals they require and to communicate with the computer. For such tasks, Arduino microcontrollers are widely used due to their low cost and programming entry barrier. However, they are limiting in their performance for applications that require high-speed or multiple parallel processes. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are the perfect technology for high-speed microscope control, as they are capable of processing signals in parallel and with high temporal precision. While plummeting prices made the technology available to consumers, a major hurdle remaining is the complex languages used to configure them. In this work, we used an affordable FPGA, delivered with an open-source and friendly-to-use programming language, to create a versatile microscope control platform called MicroFPGA. It is capable of synchronously triggering cameras and multiple lasers following complex patterns, as well as generating various signals used to control microscope elements such as filter wheels, servomotor stages, flip-mirrors, laser power or acousto-optic modulators. MicroFPGA is open-source and we provide online Micro-Manager, Java, Python and LabVIEW libraries, together with blueprints and tutorials. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:06:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1a1f6aa7ce3340d18db19faa59be1356 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2468-0672 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:06:52Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | HardwareX |
| spelling | doaj.art-1a1f6aa7ce3340d18db19faa59be13562023-03-13T04:15:54ZengElsevierHardwareX2468-06722023-03-0113e00407MicroFPGA: An affordable FPGA platform for microscope controlJoran Deschamps0Christian Kieser1Philipp Hoess2Takahiro Deguchi3Jonas Ries4Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany; Computational Biology Center, Fondazione Human Technopole, Milan, Italy; Corresponding author at: Computational Biology Center, Fondazione Human Technopole, Milan, Italy.Electronics Workshop, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, GermanyCell Biology and Biophysics Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, GermanyCell Biology and Biophysics Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, GermanyCell Biology and Biophysics Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, GermanyModern microscopy relies increasingly on microscope automation to improve throughput, ensure reproducibility or observe rare events. Automation requires computer control of the important elements of the microscope. Furthermore, optical elements that are usually fixed or manually movable can be placed on electronically-controllable elements. In most cases, a central electronics board is necessary to generate the control signals they require and to communicate with the computer. For such tasks, Arduino microcontrollers are widely used due to their low cost and programming entry barrier. However, they are limiting in their performance for applications that require high-speed or multiple parallel processes. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are the perfect technology for high-speed microscope control, as they are capable of processing signals in parallel and with high temporal precision. While plummeting prices made the technology available to consumers, a major hurdle remaining is the complex languages used to configure them. In this work, we used an affordable FPGA, delivered with an open-source and friendly-to-use programming language, to create a versatile microscope control platform called MicroFPGA. It is capable of synchronously triggering cameras and multiple lasers following complex patterns, as well as generating various signals used to control microscope elements such as filter wheels, servomotor stages, flip-mirrors, laser power or acousto-optic modulators. MicroFPGA is open-source and we provide online Micro-Manager, Java, Python and LabVIEW libraries, together with blueprints and tutorials.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468067223000147FPGAMicroscopyElectronicsTriggeringSynchronizationAutomation |
| spellingShingle | Joran Deschamps Christian Kieser Philipp Hoess Takahiro Deguchi Jonas Ries MicroFPGA: An affordable FPGA platform for microscope control HardwareX FPGA Microscopy Electronics Triggering Synchronization Automation |
| title | MicroFPGA: An affordable FPGA platform for microscope control |
| title_full | MicroFPGA: An affordable FPGA platform for microscope control |
| title_fullStr | MicroFPGA: An affordable FPGA platform for microscope control |
| title_full_unstemmed | MicroFPGA: An affordable FPGA platform for microscope control |
| title_short | MicroFPGA: An affordable FPGA platform for microscope control |
| title_sort | microfpga an affordable fpga platform for microscope control |
| topic | FPGA Microscopy Electronics Triggering Synchronization Automation |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468067223000147 |
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