Hardware and Software Development Projects
Our laboratory develops custom instruments and devices for laser scanning microscopy and other types of bioanalytical instrumentation.
We design circuitry using Eagle PCB
for schematic capture and printed circuit board (PCB) layout. The PCBs are sent to OSH Park
or Sunstone Circuits for fabrication, and then populated using a
Zephyrtronics air-bath surface mount prototyping system.
We use a number of different microcontrollers (primarily Microchip PIC MCUs), FPGA boards and digital IO cards for instrument control
and data acquisition. PC level control software is written in C/C++ using Microsoft Visual Studio. We also design and build mechanical hardware as needed,
such as custom mounts, enclosures and microscope stage adapters required for different projects in our lab. We have small machine shop
in our lab with a Tormach CNC mill and use
Fusion 360 for mechanical design.
Our primary development projects involve hardware and software development for laser scanning microscopy as needed for different custom applications.
Here is an overview of our current laser scanning system components:
Hardware:
Scancard - two channel high speed DAC card for driving linear galvos
Acquisition System - PMT controller and preamps, 4 channel digitizer
Peripherals Control - for control of Pockels cells, servos, steppers etc.
Use of our scancard for circle TIRF and Scanning Angle Interference microscopy.
Software: