A low-cost and simple on-chip cell counting device based on lensless imaging technology

Abstract

Cell counting is a basic and important detection technique in biomedical diagnosis. However, current cell counting devices are expensive and bulky, which are not conducive to rapid cell counting. To solve this problem, we design a low-cost and simple on-chip cell counting device based on lensless imaging technology. The device uses an ordinary white LED light and a CMOS image sensor to capture the cell image in the microfluidic chip, and uses a microcomputer - Raspberry Pi 4B for image transmission and processing. Then a self-developed processing program is designed to count the cells. In addition, the device can perform micron-scale particle imaging, which can identify microbeads of different sizes. Compared with other lensless imaging devices, our device has obvious advantages in low cost, scalability, and degree of automation, which can improve the efficiency of biological experiments, and is of great significance for expanding the population of healthcare services in the future.