PAM

The Programmable Array Microscope (PAM) is a structured illumination confocal microscope that uses a spatial light modulator (SLM) in the primary image plane to construct a pattern of conjugate illumination and detection. By integrating over a number of such patterns, a confocal image is generated. Possible patterns include point scanning, line scanning, and pseudorandom (Sylvester) sequences. A non-conjugate image -- consisting of light collected from pixels that were not used for illumination -- is used to reduce the background signal usually associated with multiple pinhole systems, such as spinning disk confocal microscopes.

Features and Application of the Programmable Array Microscope (PAM).

(A) Modules comprising a system for high-speed, highly sensitive, multiparametric optical sectioning fluorescence microscopy of living cells. The heart is a Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) spatial light modulator for generating patterns of illumination and detection. (B) Confocal micrograph acquired with the PAM showing the distribution on A431 cells of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tagged with GFP (green). Quantum dot-coupled growth factors (red) bind to the EGFR on cellular filopodia and the cell membrane. The image is a maximum intensity projection of 19 optically sectioned slices spaced 0.5 µm apart and acquired with an emCCD camera using an exposure of only ~16 ms per slice (data of G. Hagen).