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Miniature Microscope edited this page Aug 11, 2025 · 3 revisions

Rigid-Flex PCB

The Rigid-Flex PCB holds all the on-board electronics needed for the MiniLFOV. It contains a U.FL coax connector, voltage regulators, serializer, CMOS imaging sensor, BNO055 head orientation sensor, excitation LED and driver, and electrowetting lens driver. If you need to do any soldering rework on this board, it should be baked at 120 degrees C for at least 2 hours before hand.

The KiCad, BOM, gerbers, and Pick and Place files are provided in this repository. More details can be found on the Rigid Flex PCB page.

Optical Filters

The majority of the documentation for the MiniLFOV is centered around imaging neural activity using GCaMP. That being said, by swapping out the LED and filter set, the Miniscope is capable of imaging most fluorophores. Most filter manufacturers can dice any of their filters to custom sizes, just remember the standard MiniLFOV design was designed to work with 1mm thick filters. Thinner or thicker filters might require additional modification.

Excitation Filter

The excitation filter is a 4mm x 4mm x 1.1mm band-pass optical filter used to narrow the spectrum of the excitation LED. For exciting GCaMP's we suggest using:
  • Vendor: Chroma
  • Part Number: ET470/40x
  • Note: Diced to 4mm x 4mm in size

Emission Filter

The emission filter is a 10mm x 10mm x 1mm long-pass or band-pass optical filter used to block out any remaining excitation light from the imaging sensor. For imaging GCaMP's fluorescence we suggest using:
  • Vendor: Chroma
  • Part Number: ET525/50m
  • Note: Diced to 10mm x 10mm in size

Cabling and Connectors

Coaxial Cable

Just like previous Miniscopes, the MiniLFOV uses a 50Ohm coaxial cable for power, communication, and data. Any 50Ohm coax cable should work with the system but, in general, the thinner the cable, the shorter it must be. For a rough guideline: a 0.3mm diameter coax cable like cannot be longer than 5 ft, a 1mm diameter coax cable can likely function at lengths over 15 feet.

Our go-to coax cable for freely behaving experiments (with a good trade off between weight, size, flexibility, and robustness) is:

  • Vendor: Cooner Wire (can be purchased at other places too)

  • Part Number: CW8251

  • Description: Coax cable. 36AWG 26/50SPC TRANSCUCENT PFA TO .016" NOM. O.D. 44AWG SPC SHIELD WITH .010" WHITE SILICONE RUBBER JACKET TO .045" NOM O.D. For thinner cabling, mouser sells a 0.3mm diameter Molex coax cable that works well:

  • Vendor: Mouser (others)

  • Mouser Part Number: 538-50MCX-37

  • Part Number: 100065-0023

  • Description: Coaxial Cables 42AWG PFA, 50 OHM MICRO COAX, PER FT

Hirose U.FL Connector

The Rigid-Flex PCB has been designed to accept both a directly solder coax cable as well as a Hirose U.FL miniature coax connector. Since Rigid-Flex PCBs often need to be baked at 120 degrees C for a few hours before doing any soldering on them, we highly recommend using a connectorized coax cable instead of directly soldering one to the PCB. The advantage is a connectorized cable can be swapped out quickly if damaged. It is important to use the Hirose version of a U.FL connector as other manufacturers' connectors seem to not fit as snugly.
  • Manufacturer: Hirose
  • Vendor: Digikey, Mouser
  • Part Number: U.FL-PR-SMT2.5-1(10)
  • Description: RF Connectors / Coaxial Connectors U.FL SMT PLUG F CONTACT 50OHM
  • Important Note: These connectors are not designed to be repeatedly connected and disconnected. We suggest you keep connecting/disconnecting to a minimum and treat the connector/cable as part of the MiniLFOV, only swapping it out if the cable gets damaged. Hirose sells other U.FL connectors that will also work, some that come already connected to a coax cable (flexibility of cable may not be great though).

Coax to SMA Connector

One end of the coax cable will connect to the V4 Minsicopes, the other end needs to have an SMA connector so it can connect to the Minsicope DAQ Box. There are many ways of connectorizing a coax cable with an SMA connector but since you will likely be using thin, less standard coax cables, we have designed a simple PCB to help facilitate this connectoriztion. You can find the PCB here:

Order from OSH Park

You will also need a side mount SMA connector:

Vendor: Digikey Part Number: CONSMA013.062-ND

Other Items

Screws

Quantity Vendor Part Number Description
12 McMaster-Carr 96817a704 M1 thread-forming screws
8 McMaster-Carr 92196A052 18-8 Stainless Steel Socket Head Screw, 0-80 Thread Size
2 Thorlabs SS4S025 4-40 Stainless Steel Setscrew, 1/4" Long

Additional Tools

T2 Torx Screw Driver for M1 thread-forming screws:

  • Vendor: McMaster
  • Part Number: 52995A24 Filter paper or Kim Wipes

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