Digital Thermal Microscope for Biomedical Application

In order to analyze the biomedical, we proposed a novel digital thermal microscope based on the uncooled focal plane detector, aiming to achieve the long-wave infrared microscope image, especially for biomedical analysis. Both the mathematical mode of noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) and the noise equivalent eradiation difference (NEED) were established for micro thermal imaging system. Based on the mathematical model, some measures were taken to increase the system temperature resolution. Furthermore the uncooled focal plane arrays has inherent non-uniformities, so we proposed an adaptive algorithm that can complete NUC by only one frame. Results of our thermal microscope have proved that NUC can weaken striping noise greatly and plateau histogram equalization can further enhance the image quality. The software for the thermal microscope is provided based on Visual C++ and the methods mentioned above. Results of real thermal image experiments have shown that the digital thermal microscope is designed successfully and achieves good performance. With the thermal microscope, minute sized thermal analysis can be achieved. Thus it will become an effective means for diagnosis and the detection of cancer, and it can also accelerate the development of methods for biomedical engineering. The system is very meaningful for academic analysis and is promising for practical applications.