Hyperspectral Microscopy
Configure hyperspectral data cubes: spectral range, bands, data size, acquisition time, and SNR tradeoffs.
Band width Δλ
10.00 nm
Raw data, all frames
40.0 MiB
One cube
4.0 MiB
Acquisition time
32.0 s
SNR per band, frames summed
89.3
Per band
SNR per band vs number of bands
Data cube size vs bands
Model
V = N_x N_y N_λ bits N_frames / 8 bytes (1 MiB = 2²⁰ bytes), T = N_frames N_λ t
Δλ = (λ_max − λ_min)/N_λ, S = Φ_λ Δλ t QE
SNR = √N_frames · S / √(S + I_dark t + σ_read²)
Band-sequential acquisition (tunable filter or scanned bands) of a flat spectrum: each band collects the photons in its own width Δλ. At a fixed exposure per band, more bands means narrower bands and fewer photons each; at a fixed total time the exposure per band drops as well, so the shot-noise-limited SNR falls as 1/N_λ. Snapshot and line-scan (push-broom) spectrometers, filter transmission and the camera's full well are not modelled. Sizes assume bit-packed samples; most cameras store 12- and 14-bit data in 16-bit words.
Model and references
Textbook approximation. A standard approximation from the literature (for example paraxial, plane-wave or Gaussian-beam), valid within the range the page states. About the tiers
Band-sequential acquisition of a flat spectrum: each band collects Φ_λ·Δλ·t photons with shot, dark and read noise, and frames are summed. Bit-packed cube size; readout and band switching are not timed.
- Janesick J. R. (2007). Photon Transfer. SPIE Press. Pixel SNR from shot, dark and read noise. doi:10.1117/3.725073
- Garini Y., Young I. T., McNamara G. (2006). Spectral imaging: principles and applications. Cytometry A 69A, 735–747. Band-sequential and other spectral-imaging schemes and their trade-offs. doi:10.1002/cyto.a.20311