High speed 3-dimensional confocal microscopic equipment

Details High speed 3-dimensional confocal microscopic equipment High speed 3-dimensional confocal microscopic equipment

1998-12-11

2001-10-09

Lee, John R. (Department: 2878)

Radiant energy

Photocells; circuits and apparatus

Optical or pre-photocell system

C250S201300, C359S823000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06300618

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to confocal microscopic equipment that displays an object under test in three-dimensional form using a confocal microscope. More precisely, the present invention relates to an improvement for optical production of real-time three-dimensional displays of an object by realizing high resolution and large depth of focus in real-time at high speed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 7
shows an example of the conventional type of confocal microscopic equipment. The equipment captures an image of sample
11
using confocal scanner
20
mounted on optical microscope
10
and takes photographs of this image with camera
30
. To confocal scanner
20
, the laser beam generated from laser light source
50
is supplied.
The output signal of camera
30
is converted to a digital signal through converter
40
and stored in a memory means (not shown in the figure) in computer
60
.
In optical microscope
10
, stage
12
on which sample
11
is mounted is built to be movable in the optical axis direction (Z-axis direction) by controller
13
(illustrated separately from optical microscope
10
in
FIG. 7
to avoid complication). Controller
13
is constructed to move stage
12
in the Z-axis direction by turning the rotary knob (not shown in the figure) of stage
12
using a pulse motor (not shown in the figure).
Sliced images of sample
11
can be obtained by scanning the beam in directions perpendicular to the optical axis (X- and Y-axis directions) using confocal scanner
20
. In this case, if multiple sliced images are sampled progressively by moving stage
12
in the Z-axis direction with controller
13
and then are reconstructed using computer
60
, a three-dimensional image of sample
11
can be obtained.
However, there are the following problems in confocal microscopic equipment constructed as described above:
(1) Problems caused by the fact that controller
13
is driven by a pulse motor.
(a) The entire body of stage
12
is moved up and down. However, since the weight of stage
12
is heavy and thus its inertia is also large, stage
12
cannot be moved at high speed and so its movement takes a long time.
(b) It is not accurate. Since the rotary knob of stage
12
is turned by a pulse motor, out-of-step (the pulse motor appears to move but actually does not move) or hysteresis occurs during motion at the rack-pinion portion linking the rotary knob to stage
12
. Hence, it is not known whether stage
12
has actually moved and so the movement is not accurate.
(c) Usually, a pulse motor has a large external size and is difficult to install.
(2) Problems caused by reconstructing a three-dimensional image with computer
60
.
(a) It takes a long time; it typically takes from several minutes to tens of minutes to obtain an image sheet.
(b) Software for reconstructing three-dimensional images is expensive and is also difficult to operate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The objective of the present invention is to solve the problems described above in providing confocal microscopic equipment in which scanning in the optical axis direction is performed at high speed and the real-time three-dimensional image can be easily displayed.
In order to solve those problems, the invention is characterized by confocal microscopic equipment that can capture sliced images of a sample by scanning the sample surface with a light beam using a confocal scanner as shown below. The confocal microscopic equipment comprises an objective lens actuator that scans the objective lens in the optical axis direction faster than the one-image integrating time when photographing the above sliced images with an image pickup device or when observing the above sliced images directly with the naked eye.
In the invention, the objective lens is scanned in the optical axis direction with the objective lens actuator provided in the confocal microscopic equipment. In this case, the objective lens is scanned faster than the one-image integrating time when the one-image is observed by an image pickup device or the naked eye. This allows images of large depth of focus to be seen in real-time and so real-time three-dimensional display of samples can be achieved.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4863252 (1989-09-01), McCarthy et al.
patent: 5995867 (1999-11-01), Zavislan et al.
patent: 3-134607 (1991-06-01), None

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