A fiber-optic system was developed to rapidly acquire tissue fluorescence wavelength-time matrices (WTMs) with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The essential system components (473 nm microchip laser operating at 3 kHz repetition frequency, fiber-probe assemblies, emission monochromator, photomultiplier tube, and digitizer) were assembled into a compact and clinically-compatible unit. Data were acquired from fluorescence standards and tissue-simulating phantoms to test system performance. Fluorescence decay waveforms with SNR > 100 at the decay curve peak were obtained in less than 30 ms. With optimized data transfer and monochromator stepping functions, it should be feasible to acquire a full WTM at 5 nm emission wavelength intervals over a 200 nm range in under 2 seconds.