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We report the implementation of a parallel microscopy system (96 Eyes) that is capable of simultaneous imaging of all wells on a 96-well plate. The optical system consists of 96 microscopy units, where each unit is made out of a four element objective, made through a molded injection process, and a low cost CMOS camera chip. By illuminating the sample with angle varying light and applying Fourier Ptychography, we can improve the effective brightfield imaging numerical aperture of the objectives from 0.23 to 0.3, and extend the depth of field from ±5 µm to ±15 µm. The use of Fourier Ptychography additionally allows us to computationally correct the objectives' aberrations out of the rendered images, and provides us with the ability to render phase images. The 96 Eyes acquires raw data at a rate of 0.7 frame per second (all wells) and the data are processed with 4 cores of graphical processing units (GPUs; GK210, Nvidia Tesla K80, USA). The system is also capable of fluorescence imaging (excitation = 465 nm, emission = 510 nm) at the native resolution of the objectives. We demonstrate the capability of this system by imaging S1P1-eGFP-Human bone osteosarcoma epithelial (U2OS) cells.

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Based on image encoding in a serial-temporal format, optical time-stretch imaging entails a stringent requirement of state-of-the-art fast data acquisition unit in order to preserve high image resolution at an ultrahigh frame rate - hampering the widespread utilities of such technology. Here, we propose a pixel super-resolution (pixel-SR) technique tailored for time-stretch imaging that preserves pixel resolution at a relaxed sampling rate. It harnesses the subpixel shifts between image frames inherently introduced by asynchronous digital sampling of the continuous time-stretch imaging process. Precise pixel registration is thus accomplished without any active opto-mechanical subpixel-shift control or other additional hardware. Here, we present the experimental pixel-SR image reconstruction pipeline that restores high-resolution time-stretch images of microparticles and biological cells (phytoplankton) at a relaxed sampling rate (≈2-5 GSa/s)-more than four times lower than the originally required readout rate (20 GSa/s) - is thus effective for high-throughput label-free, morphology-based cellular classification down to single-cell precision. Upon integration with the high-throughput image processing technology, this pixel-SR time-stretch imaging technique represents a cost-effective and practical solution for large scale cell-based phenotypic screening in biomedical diagnosis and machine vision for quality control in manufacturing.

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Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) has been proven to be a powerful tool for label-free characterization of biological specimens. However, the imaging speed, largely limited by the image sensor technology, impedes its utility in applications where high-throughput screening and efficient big-data analysis are mandated. We here demonstrate interferometric time-stretch (iTS) microscopy for delivering ultrafast quantitative phase cellular and tissue imaging at an imaging line-scan rate >20 MHz­orders-of-magnitude faster than conventional QPI. Enabling an efficient time-stretch operation in the 1-µm wavelength window, we present an iTS microscope system for practical ultrafast QPI of fixed cells and tissue sections, as well as ultrafast flowing cells (at a flow speed of up to 8 m∕s). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that time-stretch imaging could reveal quantitative morphological information of cells and tissues with nanometer precision. As many parameters can be further extracted from the phase and can serve as the intrinsic biomarkers for disease diagnosis, iTS microscopy could find its niche in high-throughput and high-content cellular assays (e.g., imaging flow cytometry) as well as tissue refractometric imaging (e.g., whole-slide imaging for digital pathology).

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Accelerating imaging speed in optical microscopy is often realized at the expense of image contrast, image resolution, and detection sensitivity--a common predicament for advancing high-speed and high-throughput cellular imaging. We here demonstrate a new imaging approach, called asymmetric-detection time-stretch optical microscopy (ATOM), which can deliver ultrafast label-free high-contrast flow imaging with well delineated cellular morphological resolution and in-line optical image amplification to overcome the compromised imaging sensitivity at high speed. We show that ATOM can separately reveal the enhanced phase-gradient and absorption contrast in microfluidic live-cell imaging at a flow speed as high as ~10 m/s, corresponding to an imaging throughput of ~100,000 cells/sec. ATOM could thus be the enabling platform to meet the pressing need for intercalating optical microscopy in cellular assay, e.g. imaging flow cytometry--permitting high-throughput access to the morphological information of the individual cells simultaneously with a multitude of parameters obtained in the standard assay.

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