History
Commercially available laboratory-based chemical imaging systems emerged in the early 1990s (ref. 1-5). In addition to economic factors, such as the need for sophisticated electronics and extremely high-end computers, a significant barrier to commercialization of infrared imaging was that the focal plane array (FPA) needed to read IR images were not readily available as commercial items. As high-speed electronics and sophisticated computers became more commonplace, and infrared cameras became readily commercially available, laboratory chemical imaging systems were introduced.
Initially used for novel research in specialized laboratories, chemical imaging became a more commonplace analytical technique used for general R&D, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) in less than a decade. The rapid acceptance of the technology in a variety of industries (pharmaceutical, polymers, semiconductors, security, forensics and agriculture) rests in the wealth of information characterizing both chemical composition and morphology. The parallel nature of chemical imaging data makes it possible to analyze multiple samples simultaneously for applications that require high throughput analysis in addition to characterizing a single sample.
Read more about this topic: Chemical Imaging
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History takes time.... History makes memory.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)