A compact, cost-effective diffuse reflectance spectroscopic imaging system for quantitative tissue absorption and scattering

There is clinical utility for a wide-field, spectroscopic imaging device for quantitative tissue absorption and scattering in a number of applications. We present the design of a compact, cost-effective spectroscopic imaging system, which consists of a broadband source with bandpass filters and a light guide for illumination and an inexpensive array of silicon photodiodes for detection. A single-pixel version of the system was tested in liquid phantoms simulating a wide range of human breast tissue and optical properties can be extracted with absorption and reduced scattering errors of 12.6% and 4.7%, respectively. We show proof-of-concept for performing fast, wide-field spectroscopic imaging with a simple design. The design also allows for scaling and expansion into higher pixel number and density in future iterations of custom device design, which includes in-house photodiode array fabrication processes and integration of on-board current amplifier circuits.