The first of its kind in the world: a high-spectral real-time imaging device with 100 channels and 1 million pixels independently developed by Chinese scientists

On November 8, the official WeChat account of Beijing Institute of Technology published a blog post yesterday (November 7), reporting that the team of Academician Zhang Jun of the school pioneered the on-chip spectral multiplexing sensing architecture and independently developed the world's first 100-channel, megapixel hyperspectral real-time imaging device, setting a world record for light energy utilization.

Project Background

The spectrum is called the "light gene", which represents the intensity distribution of the light signal in different bands and characterizes the intrinsic properties of the target's reflection/transmission of light.

Hyperspectral imaging technology can simultaneously obtain the spatial structure information of the target and the spectral information of dozens or even hundreds of bands. It can accurately identify the material characteristics of the target, thereby achieving accurate identification of complex environments. It has important applications in many fields such as satellite remote sensing, deep space exploration, and new equipment. It is a research hotspot and difficulty that countries around the world are competing for.

Existing hyperspectral imaging technology is limited by the traditional modes of geometric spectroscopy and narrowband measurement. Spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions are compromised. The system is large, heavy and difficult to integrate, which seriously restricts its development and application in major fields.

Project Team

The project team is led by Academician Zhang Jun. The first authors of the paper are Professor Bian Liheng, doctoral student Wang Zhen, and master student Zhang Yuzhe from Beijing Institute of Technology. The corresponding authors are Academician Zhang Jun and Professor Bian Liheng. Beijing Institute of Technology is the only completing unit.

Project Introduction

The team proposed the on-chip spectral multiplexing perception theory and technology, which overturned the traditional geometric spectrometry, narrowband measurement, and physical output mode, and realized on-chip broadband alienated control of hyperspectral imaging.

On-chip spectrum multiplexing sensing architecture and its working principle

The team independently developed a hyperspectral intelligent imaging device, which increased the light energy utilization rate from the typical less than 25% to 74.8%.

The picture shows a new type of hyperspectral intelligent imaging device developed by the research team of Beijing Institute of Technology. Source: Xinhua News Agency

The device weighs only tens of grams, and its operating band covers the ultra-wide visible light and near-infrared band (400-1700nm). It has an internationally leading space-time-spectral resolution (1024×1024@124fps, 96 channels) and has completely independent intellectual property rights.

Device application prospects

The device has shown broad application prospects in remote sensing, life and health, smart agriculture, industrial automation and other fields:

• In the field of remote sensing, the team used the device to shoot high-definition spectral videos of the lunar surface, achieving dynamic remote monitoring of observation targets in low-light environments, demonstrating the device's excellent light energy utilization and spatiotemporal spectral resolution.

• In the field of life and health, the device realizes dynamic blood oxygen detection and water pollution analysis;

• In the field of smart agriculture, the device achieves high-precision chlorophyll detection, sugar content detection, and fruit bruise detection;

• In industrial automation, the device enables high-precision automatic sorting of textiles.