A major BioTech company contracted with DSP Tools to enhance their family of cell sorting devices known as Flow Cytometers (laser-based cell sorting machines).

Using Digital Signal Processing and FPGA technology, we replaced a 19" rack filled with 15 analog boards (with many manual adjustments) with just 3 PCI boards plugged into a PC. DSP Tools developed firmware for the cards as well as a device driver that interfaced the hardware with the customer's LabView-based application. The DSP firmware set a benchmark for cell processing time over previous and competing products.

The new design saved a significant amount of manufacturing cost while improving the system performance by an order of magnitude. We supplied them with tested boards for their final production. They could simply treat the board set as a purchased part.

Happy with the outcome from the 3-board set, the customer once again contracted DSP Tools to provide their next generation Flow Cytometer controller board (shown below). The single board system interfaced with other custom circuits to not only analyze the laser outputs (cell data) but control the fluidics and tube motion mechanics as well. The system was no longer tied to the PC, and could be accessed over the network.