Olympia Gennadi - imec & Hamed Zivariadab - imec

In a recent clinical study, it was demonstrated how imec spectral imaging on-chip technology can be used to quantify amyloid protein accumulation and aspects of neurodegeneration for early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease. By installing a snapshot spectral camera on a standard retinal imaging or fundus microscope, a spectral image of the eye can be acquired. Different from a standard RGB image, this spectral image reveals details on how light of different wavelengths interacts with the retina, thus carrying unique spectral fingerprints that enable the detection of systemic diseases. 

The way light is scattered, transmitted, absorbed and reflected as it interacts with matter contains information about the spatial and chemical composition of an object. As disease progresses, the morphology and molecular constituents of tissue change leading to alterations in the tissue spectra. The potential clinical benefits of spectral imaging have since long been established in the laboratory. Up to date, bringing spectral imaging in a clinical setting is, however, hindered by the difficulty of integrating bulky and fragile imaging instrumentation into pre-existing clinical instrumentation and workflows. Imec’s process of incorporating thin-film spectral filters directly on the pixels of commercial image sensors provides compact and robust video-rate spectral imaging sensors suitable for clinical integration and implementation at scale for population screening to prevent disease progression. 

Imec’s on-chip implementation of spectral filters enables novel applications and diagnosis methods by capturing spectral information in one take. In this talk we zoom in on both the technology and its application for early-stage Alzheimer Disease screening through retinal imaging.