The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in the commercial market space known as hyperspectral imaging. The products that result from this project will have applications in many important industries for identifying and characterizing materials and tissues through their unique spectral (color) characteristics. One important application is biomedical imaging, for example in the early detection of skin cancer. Early detection (and excision) of melanoma is the only effective treatment. Survival decreases 20-fold and treatment costs increase 100-fold from earliest to latest stage, and misdiagnosis is a leading factor in malpractice suits that also increases the overall cost of healthcare. The research and development performed on this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be key to the development of a novel optical filter based approach to hyperspectral imaging. This technology will allow for an affordable diagnostic tool for accurate, early detection of skin cancer and other medical conditions. There is also strong demand for a robust and high performance-to-cost ratio spectral imaging sensors in many other industries and applications including: pharmaceutical manufacturing, geographical imaging and remote sensing, analyzing mineral and chemical specimens, and currency or drug counterfeit detection.
The proposed project will address engineering, manufacturing, and calibration challenges of a high performance-to-cost ratio hyperspectral imaging system. This technology bypasses the limitations of existing commercial spectral imaging technology with a dramatically different approach. The technology aims to utilize established wafer-based fabrication technology to integrate large arrays of curved-mirror microcavities as high finesse tunable filters in a compact and low cost-of-manufacture hyperspectral imaging sensor. The proposed project will address potential scalability of manufacturing the concave micro-mirrors, investigate the optical characteristics of the system for optimal performance, and compare our device with competing technologies in the field of biomedical spectral imaging. The project will develop the electrical control, data acquisition, and calibration techniques required to build a fully operational prototype. Improvement to the laser based fabrication process of the curved micro-mirrors will be researched in this project. The work plan is designed to investigate these key components, subsystems, and fabrication to determine feasibility by carrying out experimental investigations into each potential hurdle. The technology approach offers an attractive solution to realizing a state-of-the-art spectral imaging device that improves the performance-to-cost ratio, size and weight, and spectral resolution for a diverse set of applications.
