The Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Controller SCX 200 is an accessory for the TimeHarp 200 time-correlated single photon counting board. The product allows researchers to connect a high resolution 2-D piezo scanner and collect fluorescence lifetime data synchronous with high speed scanning. Scan and data acquisition in Time-Tagged Time Resolved (TTTR) mode are driven from the same 100 nanosecond clock, while at the same time picosecond timing is performed on laser induced fluorescence photons. This allows to acquire fluorescence lifetime images with picosecond lifetime resolution and nanometer spatial resolution.

Fluorescence Lifetime Image of mouse retina cells
Image courtesy of F. Müller, I. Gregor, J. Enderlein (IBI-1, FZ Jülich)

The setup is specifically designed to support confocal microscopy with ultimate resolution and sensitivity even down to the single molecule level. An example of such a system is the MicroTime 200, which is specifically aimed at applications such as Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM), Fluorescence Correlation Spectoscopy (FCS) or Förster Resonance Energy Transfer.

Using the powerful TTTR mode for data acquisition, the system allows extremely flexible data analysis, well beyond simple lifetime histogramming. Important examples are burst analysis, Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) and Burst Integrated Fluorescence Lifetime (BIFL). Having both temporal and spatial information of all collected photons available in one data set permits the combination of all these methods to the end of vastly enhanced sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio. Using the PRT 400 or NRT 400 detector router, users can connect up to four Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPAD) resp. Photomultiplier to perform simultaneous multi-channel time-resolved measurements. These can provide yet another dimension of information, e.g. colour and/or polarization.

The scan controller is connected to the TimeHarps' general purpose control port and delivers the control voltages for the scan controller via BNC cables. An auxillary port is available to control a shutter or switchable lasers to avoid unnecessary bleaching of fluorescent dye molecules. The piezo control voltages can be customized for various piezo stages.

Scanning (pixel size, timing, area, etc.) is controlled via the TimeHarp system software. The software is available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7 and provides vast functionality combined with exceptional ease of use. A driver library and demo code for custom programming is available and supports all modern 32-bit programming environments, e.g. C, Matlab, Delphi and the popular LabVIEW.