December 09, 2008

Aperio Receives Second Patent for Use of TDI Arrays in Microscope Slide Scanners

BY Dr. Keith J. Kaplan

Today Aperio announced receiving their second patent in the last 60 days that covers use of time delay integration (TDI) arrays for whole slide imaging.  The patent includes specific claims for the use of TDI arrays in slide scanning systems, including the use of multiple TDI arrays in conjunction with a prism to split an optical system into multiple color channels as well as flourscence imaging.

Full press release

My understanding of this technology is rudimentary at best but I understand this to be analagous to line-scan cameras which offer higher resolution, faster speed and more continuous processing in conjunction with the scanning process:

Patent abstract

"Apparatus for and method of fully automatic rapid scanning and digitizing of an entire microscope sample, or a substantially large portion of a microscope sample, using a linear array detector synchronized with a positioning stage that is part of a computer controlled microscope slide scanner. The invention provides a method for composing the image strips obtained from successive scans of the sample into a single contiguous digital image. The invention also provides a method for statically displaying sub-regions of this large digital image at different magnifications, together with a reduced magnification macro-image of the entire sample. The invention further provides a method for dynamically displaying, with or without operator interaction, portions of the contiguous digital image. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, all elements of the scanner are part of a single-enclosure that has a primary connection to the Internet or to a local intranet. In this embodiment, the preferred sample type is a microscope slide and the illumination and imaging optics are consistent with transmission mode optics optimized for diffraction-limited digital imaging."

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