System calibration method for Fourier ptychographic microscopy.

Area of Science:

• Computational imaging
• Microscopy techniques

Background:

• Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) offers high resolution and wide field of view.
• Existing FPM platforms suffer from systematic errors (aberrations, LED fluctuations, parameter imperfections, noise) that corrupt reconstructions.
• Distinguishing and separating mixed systematic errors in FPM is challenging due to their interdependencies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel system calibration procedure (SC-FPM) for simultaneous correction of mixed systematic errors in FPM.
• To improve the robustness and practicality of FPM imaging.

Main Methods:

• SC-FPM utilizes simulated annealing, LED intensity correction, nonlinear regression, and adaptive step-size strategies.
• The procedure involves iterative evaluation of an error metric and re-estimation of accurate parameters.
• Calibration is performed from an overall perspective to handle mixed systematic errors.

Main Results:

• The proposed SC-FPM method demonstrates superior performance in both simulations and experiments compared to state-of-the-art algorithms.
• SC-FPM effectively calibrates mixed systematic errors simultaneously.
• The method improves the robustness of FPM and relaxes experimental conditions.

Conclusions:

• SC-FPM provides a pragmatic solution for FPM system calibration by addressing mixed systematic errors.
• The technique does not require any preknowledge, making FPM more accessible.
• This advancement enhances the reliability and applicability of Fourier ptychographic microscopy.