FLUORESCENCE LIFETIME SENSOR MODULE AND METHOD OF DETERMINING A FLUORESCENCE LIFETIME USING A SENSOR MODULE

摘要

A fluorescence lifetime sensor module comprises an opaque housing (OH) having a first chamber (CH1) and a second chamber (CH2) which are separated by a light barrier (LB). An optical emitter (OE) is arranged in the first chamber (CH1) and configured to emit through a first aperture (AP1). Emission of pulses of light of a specified wavelength is arranged to optically excite a fluorescent probe (FP) to be positioned in front of the sensor module. A detector (MD) is arranged in the second chamber (CH2) and configured to detect through a second aperture (AP2) received photons from the fluorescent probe (FP). A measurement block (MB) is configured to determine respective difference values representative of an arrival time of one of the received photons with respect to the emission pulses. A histogram block (HIST) is configured to accumulate the difference values in a histogram. A processing circuit (PRC) is configured to compute time-of-flight values based on an evaluation of the histogram, compute a fluorescence lifetime from the time-of-flight values and generate an output signal (OS) being indicative of the fluorescence lifetime of the fluorescent probe. A control unit (CU) is configured to initiate pulsed emission of the optical emitter (OE).