Cytometry – BittWare Have It Sorted!

Cytometers are instruments that measure the properties of single cells, one cell at a time. They can measure cell size, cell granularity, and the amounts of cell components such as DNA and proteins.

Flow cytometers take in a suspension of cells and run them single file past a laser beam. The laser is used to count different cell populations based on the light that their specific labels emit.

Biological cell classification is a highly complex process, made possible by digital signal processing. In the past, flow cytometry and cell sorting systems have used complex, custom analog circuitry that has remained unchanged for years. BittWare has worked with customers to develop systems that use both DSPs and FPGAs working together to provide the processing. This has created intelligent systems that also provide a high level of flexibility and re-programmability, enabling them to be somewhat general purpose, yet capable of being tailored to the requirements of specific, in this case, medical applications.

BittWare were approached by a customer with a very specific requirement. Their challenge was to provide a very high system throughput - 64 channels of 105 MHz ADC, real-time processing of unpredictable and changing data, a very high level of flexibility for rapid adaptation and updating, along with extended precision and dynamic range.

When the customer started designing their prototype they used DSP, which worked but didn’t give them the flexibility they needed. BittWare took over and created a hybrid signal processing design – DSP + FPGA, which lowered costs and increased flexibility.

Adding an FPGA to the mix meant the number of DSPs could be halved, significantly reducing the overall system cost. The hybrid solution provided the best of both worlds with the DSPs satisfying the need for sustained, low-latency, high-throughput processing, and the FPGAs providing fast, repetitive front-end processing and system flexibility.

For more information on DSP and FPGA technology from BittWare please get in touch - info@sarsen.net.

Have a great weekend!