49 results about "Epi illumination" patented technology

A system and method provide normalized fluorescence epi-illumination images and normalized fluorescence transillumination images. The normalization can be used to improve two-dimensional (planar) fluorescence epi-illumination images and two-dimensional (planar) fluorescence transillumination images. The system and method can also provide normalized bioluminescence epi-illumination images and normalized bioluminescence transillumination images. In some arrangements, the system and method can provide imagine of small animals, into-operative imaging, endoscopic imaging, and / or imaging of hollow organs.

The present invention is directed to a microscope mounted into a computer, such as e.g., a desktop, workstation, or laptop. The microscope mounted into the computer has a light source component, a microscope component, and a light analysis component. The light source component is connected to the microscope component, which in turn is connected to the light analysis component. This device is advantageously compact and can be used for a variety of microscope techniques such as, e.g., epi-illumination, trans-illumination, and fluorescence microscopy.

The invention provides a surface inspection apparatus and a method for inspecting the surface of a sample that are capable of inspecting discriminatingly between the scratch of various configuration and the adhered foreign object that occur on the surface of a work target when the work target (for example, an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate) is subjected to polishing process such as CMP or grinding process in semiconductor manufacturing process or magnetic head manufacturing process. In the invention, the scratch and foreign object that occur on the polished or ground surface of the sample is epi-illuminated and slant-illuminated by use of approximately same light flux, the difference between the scattered light intensity emitted from the shallow scratch and that from the foreign object when epi-illumination is applied and slant illumination is applied to thereby discriminate between the shallow scratch and the foreign object, and the directionality of the scattered light when the epi-illumination is applied and the slant illumination is applied is detected to thereby discriminate between the linear scratch and the foreign object.

Advantageous instruments, assemblies and methods are provided for undertaking imaging techniques (e.g., microscopic imaging techniques). The present disclosure provides improved imaging techniques, equipment and systems. More particularly, the present disclosure provides advantageous microscopy / imaging assemblies with rapid sample auto-focusing (e.g., microscopy / imaging assemblies having instant focusing for rapid sample imaging with auto-focusing). The present disclosure provides for high-throughput whole slide imaging with instant focal plane detection. A whole slide imaging platform / assembly that uses instant focusing systems / methods for high-speed sample autofocusing is provided. Such exemplary platforms / assemblies can be used for digital pathology or the like, and can provide improved, faster and cheaper diagnosis / prognosis of ailments / diseases. At least two exemplary rapid-focus systems for whole slide imaging are provided, a first system including two pinhole-modulated cameras mounted on the eyepiece ports of a microscope platform / assembly, and a second system including one pinhole-modulated camera mounted on the epi-illumination arm for auto-focusing.

An epi-illumination apparatus for fluorescent observation, adjusting light intensities of a plurality of illuminations on a sample over a wide wavelength band continuously and being configured inexpensively, and a fluorescence microscope having the same are provided. A light source, extracting means, an aperture stop, and a filter are arranged on a predetermined optical axis. The aperture stop is arranged on a plane generally conjugated with a pupil plane of an objective. The filter is placed near the aperture stop. The extracting means extracts a plurality of narrow wavelength bands from the wavelength band of the illumination emitted from the light source. The filter has regions of different spectral transmission characteristics to the narrow wavelength bands. The adjusting means for adjusting light intensities of transmitted light from the filter in the narrow wavelength bands independently by moving the filter in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis is provided.

Oblique-illumination systems integrated with fluorescence microscopes and methods of using oblique illumination in fluorescence microscopy are disclosed. An oblique-illumination system is attached to a fluorescence microscope objective. The oblique-illumination system can be used to illuminate from any desired direction the surface of an object located at a fixed known offset away from a sample solution containing fluorescently tagged targets. Oblique illumination is used to illuminate features of the surface while epi-illumination is used to create fluorescent light emitted from the tagged targets. The combination of oblique illumination of the surface and epi-illumination of the targets enables capture of images of the surface features and the fluorescent targets so that the locations of the targets in the sample can be determined based on the locations of the surface features.

An optical injection system for use in conjunction with a microscope having a turret supporting an objective having an optical path is provided. The optical injection system includes a dichroic mirror disposed between the turret and the objective, along the optical path. A collimating lens is further provided having an optical path directed to intersect the dichroic mirror. A laser source is positioned to project a laser beam through the collimating lens and along the collimating lens optical path. The laser can be used in conjunction with the microscope for a number of microsurgery applications. A method for calculating and displaying the isothermal contours of the energy produced by a laser in a sample is also provided.

An image of a sample that has high contrast both in large and fine pattern parts is acquired by using an optical system for coaxial bright field epi-illumination, forming the optical image of the sample with various transmission ratio of 0-th order diffracted light that is reflected regularly from the sample, and capturing the image by an image sensor. Optical conditioning is automatically set and in a short time by detecting a plurality of optical images of the sample under various conditions for the transmission ratio of the 0-th order diffracted light, evaluating quality of the detected images, and determining the transmission ratio of the 0-th order diffracted light showing the maximum defect detection sensitivity.

An epi-illumination system for an array microscope. For Kohler illumination, illumination light sources are placed, actually or virtually, at the pupils of respective individual microscope elements of an array microscope. In one Kohler illumination embodiment, the light source is a point source comprising the tip of an optical fiber placed on the optical axis at the pupil of its corresponding microscope element. In another Kohler illumination embodiment, the illumination light is provided by a reflective boundary placed on the optical axis of a corresponding microscope element. For critical illumination the light sources are placed at locations conjugate with their respective object planes so as to image the light sources thereon. For dark-field illumination, the support material around a microscope element lens, which is used to support an array of lenses, is fashioned to form an illumination optical element so that light from an off-axis source is directed by the illumination element toward the object plane at an angle such that light will not be reflected into the field of view of the imaging system, but scattered or fluorescence light will be within that field of view. The illumination optical element may be refractive element, a Fresnel element, a reflective element, a diffractive element, or some combination of one or more of these elements. An array of pinhole apertures may be provided to operate the array microscope in a confocal mode. All of the embodiments may be used for epi-fluorescence microscopy.

A system and method provide normalized fluorescence epi-illumination images and normalized fluorescence transillumination images. The normalization can be used to improve two-dimensional (planar) fluorescence epi-illumination images and two-dimensional (planar) fluorescence transillumination images. The system and method can also provide normalized bioluminescence epi-illumination images and normalized bioluminescence transillumination images. In some arrangements, the system and method can provide imaging of small animals, intro-operative imaging, endoscopic imaging, and / or imaging of hollow organs.

A microscope illumination device comprising: a light source; an objective for illuminating a specimen; a collector lens for converting light from the light source into parallel light; a fly-eye lens placed near to rear focal point of the collector lens; an epi-illumination projection lens for projecting light source images generated by the fly-eye lens onto the objective pupil; a tube lens for imaging an observation light from the objective; arid a fluorescence cube placed between the objective arid projection lens and comprised a filter, satisfies the expression γ2*ffly*D<γ*ffly*φ−h*p, where γ is defined as the magnification of the projection lens, ffly as the focal distance of the fly-eye lens, D as the effective diameter of the fly-eye lens, φ as the effective diameter of the filter, h as the distance between the filter and the pupil, and p as the pitch of the fly-eye lens.

A fluorescence illumination system is provided for use with an imaging apparatus that defines a light-tight imaging compartment. The fluorescence illumination system includes a trans-illumination component configured to direct excitation light into a first surface of the specimen wherein diffused light emanates from a second surface thereof for receipt through the view port to acquire fluorescence data of the specimen. Further, the fluorescence illumination system includes an epi-illumination component configured to direct excitation light onto a third surface of the specimen wherein the diffused light exits the third surface thereof for receipt through the view port to acquire fluorescence data of the specimen.

A microscope has a light source that emits light to illuminate a sample, a first wavelength selection member that selectively transmits the light from the light source, a light splitter that reflects the light from the first wavelength selection member to epi-illuminate the sample and transmits the light emitted from the sample, and a second wavelength selection member that selectively transmits the light transmitted through the light splitter. The light splitter is constituted of a transparent member and a dichroic mirror coat disposed on the transparent member. The dichroic mirror coat is constituted of a stacked layer that efficiently reflects light having a wavelength selected by the first wavelength selection member and a stacked layer that reflects light on a short wavelength side from the light selected by the first wavelength selection member, light on a long wavelength side, light of the same band, or combined light.

A visual inspection apparatus includes an upper illuminator, a lower illuminator, a side illuminator, and a pair of inclined illuminators, which illuminate the peripheral edge of a wafer, and illuminates the peripheral edge of the wafer brightly. A gap is formed in the upper illuminator and illumination light of an epi-illumination portion is injected through the gap. The illumination light of the epi-illumination portion is refracted and reflected by a first mirror to illuminate the peripheral edge of the wafer. The illumination position is changed by moving second mirrors together as needed. An image of the peripheral edge is acquired in an imaging portion disposed at the same axis as the epi-illumination portion.

The invention discloses a coaxial lighting AOI light source device. The device comprises a coaxial light fixed plate, a diffusion plate, a semi-permeable mirror, four groups of LED lamp panels, an upper cover, a middle cover and a lower cover, wherein the four groups of the LED lamp panels are a first group of the LED lamp panels, a second group of the LED lamp panels, a third group of the LED lamp panels and a fourth group of the LED lamp panels respectively from top to bottom in turn; the diffusion plate, the semi-permeable mirror and the first group of the LED lamp panels are respectively arranged on the coaxial light fixed plate; the semi-permeable mirror has an inclined mirror body; the first group of the LED lamp panels are positioned on one side of the semi-permeable mirror; the diffusion plate is arranged between the semi-permeable mirror and the first group of the LED lamp panels for separating; distance between the diffusion plate and the semi-permeable mirror forms an epi-illumination area; the second, the third and the fourth groups of the LED lamp panels are respectively arranged on the upper, the middle and the lower covers respectively; and the upper, the middle and the lower covers are arranged below the epi-illumination area sequentially from the top to the bottom. The coaxial lighting AOI light source device has the advantages of providing an all-angle lighting environment, and better displaying image characteristics in an AOI detection field, along with rational structure.

A thin section fabrication apparatus includes an epi-imaging data acquisition unit that performs imaging by radiating epi-illumination and acquires imaging data, a diffusion imaging data acquisition unit that performs imaging by radiating diffusion illumination and acquires imaging data, an exposed shape extraction unit that extracts an exposed shape of an exposure portion of the biological sample which is exposed to a surface of the embedding block, based on the imaging data acquired by the epi-imaging data acquisition unit, an embedded shape extraction unit that extracts an embedded shape of an embedding portion of the biological sample which is embedded in the embedding block, based on the imaging data acquired by the diffusion imaging data acquisition unit, and a control unit that determines ending of the preliminary cutting by comparing the exposed shape extracted by the exposed shape extraction unit and the embedded shape extracted by the embedded shape extraction unit.

An imaging system with an integrated source and detector array. A plurality of light detectors are arranged in a detector array and a plurality of light sources corresponding to detectors in the detector array are arranged in a source array in an epi-illumination system so that light radiated from a point on the object illuminated by a given source is detected by a corresponding detector. An optical system is disposed with respect to the source array and the detector array so as to illuminate an object with light from the source array and image the object on the detector array. Ordinarily, the sources and detectors are coplanar and, preferably, are fabricated or at least mounted on the same substrate. One or more sources in the source array may have a corresponding plurality of detectors, and one or more detectors in the detector array may have a corresponding plurality of sources. In one embodiment the Airy pattern of the point response of the optical system encompasses both a detector and its corresponding light sources. In another embodiment, the optical pathway is split by a diffractive element to produce conjugate points corresponding to light sources and their respective detectors. In a further embodiment, the pathway is split by a Wollaston prism. In yet another embodiment where the illumination and image light have different wavelengths, the pathway is split by dispersion. The system is particularly suited for fluorescence imaging, confocal microscopy and array microscopes.

A zoom microscope includes an observation optical system having an exchangeable objective lens, an aperture diaphragm, an afocal zoom system, and an image forming optical system; and a zoom epi-illumination optical system. The zoom epi-illumination optical system has an optical path which is also the optical path of the observation optical system between the objective lens and the afocal zoom system so as to illuminate an object by incident light. In the zoom epi-illumination optical system, an image of a light source is formed in the vicinity of the pupil position of the objective lens. This realizes a zoom microscope capable of performing fluorescent epi-illumination without shading in all the magnification ranges.

An imaging system with an integrated source and detector array. A plurality of light detectors are arranged in an array and a corresponding plurality of light sources are arranged in an array in an epi-illumination system so that light radiated from a point on the object illuminated by a given source is detected by a corresponding detector. An optical system is disposed so as to illuminate an object with light from the source array and image the object on the detector array. Ordinarily, the sources and detectors are coplanar and, preferably, are fabricated or at least mounted on the same substrate. In one embodiment the Airy pattern of the point response of the optical system encompasses both a detector and corresponding light sources. In another embodiment, the optical pathway is split by a diffractive element to produce conjugate points corresponding to light sources and their respective detectors. In a further embodiment, the pathway is split by a Wollaston prism. In yet another embodiment where the illumination and image light have different wavelengths, the pathway is split by dispersion. Another embodiment comprises a power supply connected to the plurality of light sources, a signal conditioning circuit for receiving and digitizing output signals from the light detectors so as to produce a respective set of output values, and an equalizing system for equalizing the output values for a given input radiance.

The present invention is directed to a microscope mounted into a computer, such as e.g., a desktop, workstation, or laptop. The microscope mounted into the computer has a light source component, a microscope component, and a light analysis component. The light source component is connected to the microscope component, which in turn is connected to the light analysis component. This device is advantageously compact and can be used for a variety of microscope techniques such as, e.g., epi-illumination, trans-illumination, and fluorescence microscopy.

An epi-illumination apparatus for fluorescent observation, adjusting light intensities of a plurality of illuminations on a sample over a wide wavelength band continuously and being configured inexpensively, and a fluorescence microscope having the same are provided. A light source, extracting means, an aperture stop, and a filter are arranged on a predetermined optical axis. The aperture stop is arranged on a plane generally conjugated with a pupil plane of an objective. The filter is placed near the aperture stop. The extracting means extracts a plurality of narrow wavelength bands from the wavelength band of the illumination emitted from the light source. The filter has regions of different spectral transmission characteristics to the narrow wavelength bands. The adjusting means for adjusting light intensities of transmitted light from the filter in the narrow wavelength bands independently by moving the filter in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis is provided.

The invention relates to a microscope for observing a sample in bright-field transmitted light contrast procedure or the incident-light fluorescence contrast procedure. The microscope is used for observing an object selectably using the bright-field transmitted light contrast procedure or the incident-light fluorescence contrast procedure. During the bright-field transmitted light contrast procedure, an illumination beam path is directed from a bright-field light source to the object and an imaging beam path is directed from the object through the microscope objective into the microscope tube, wherein a fluorescence unit is composed of a fluorescence excitation light source, an illumination optical system, a filter set having at least one excitation filter and at least one emission filter, as well as a beamsplitter. The fluorescence unit is mounted movably, so that in a first end position of movement, the beamsplitter and the emission filter are out of the imaging beam path of the microscope and in a second end position of movement, the beamsplitter and the emission filter are in the imaging beam path between the microscope objective and the microscope tube.

A fluorescence illumination system is provided for use with an imaging apparatus that defines a light-tight imaging compartment. The fluorescence illumination system includes a trans-illumination component configured to direct excitation light into a first surface of the specimen wherein diffused light emanates from a second surface thereof for receipt through the view port to acquire fluorescence data of the specimen. Further, the fluorescence illumination system includes an epi-illumination component configured to direct excitation light onto a third surface of the specimen wherein the diffused light exits the third surface thereof for receipt through the view port to acquire fluorescence data of the specimen.

An observation device (1) for observing a portion near the end of a wafer (10), comprising an imaging section (40) for imaging an image near the end of a wafer (10) from the extending direction of the wafer (10), and an image processing section (50) for detecting the edge of a film formed on the surface of the wafer (10) is further provided, as an illumination section for illuminating a portion near the end of a wafer (10), with an epi-illumination source (48) for illuminating a portion near the end of a wafer (10) via an observation optical system (41), and a diffusion illumination source (31) arranged to face the surface of the wafer (10) and illuminate a portion near the end of a wafer (10) using diffused light.

A microscope illumination device comprising: a light source; an objective for illuminating a specimen; a collector lens for converting light from the light source into parallel light; a fly-eye lens placed near to rear focal point of the collector lens; an epi-illumination projection lens for projecting light source images generated by the fly-eye lens onto the objective pupil; a tube lens for imaging an observation light from the objective; and a fluorescence cube placed between the objective and projection lens and comprised a filter, satisfies the expression γ2*ffly*D<γ*ffly*φ−h*p, where γ is defined as the magnification of the projection lens, ffly as the focal distance of the fly-eye lens, D as the effective diameter of the fly-eye lens, φ as the effective diameter of the filter, h as the distance between the filter and the pupil, and p as the pitch of the fly-eye lens.

A visual inspection apparatus includes an upper illuminator, a lower illuminator, a side illuminator, and a pair of inclined illuminators, which illuminate the peripheral edge of a wafer, and illuminates the peripheral edge of the wafer brightly. A gap is formed in the upper illuminator and illumination light of an epi-illumination portion is injected through the gap. The illumination light of the epi-illumination portion is refracted and reflected by a first mirror to illuminate the peripheral edge of the wafer. The illumination position is changed by moving second mirrors together as needed. An image of the peripheral edge is acquired in an imaging portion disposed at the same axis as the epi-illumination portion.

A planar sample, particularly of the type used in biological laboratories for detection and sometimes analysis of two-dimensional arrays of proteins, nucleic acids, or other biological species, is illuminated by epi-illumination using optically filtered line lights that are arranged along opposing parallel sides of a rectangle in which the sample array resides, with two coaxial line lights on each side of the rectangle, and the two on any given side being separated by a gap whose optimal width depends on the wavelength band transmitted by the optical filter. Surprisingly, the gap eliminates the peak in intensity at the center of the sample area and the decrease that occurs from the center outward that would otherwise occur with a single continuous filtered line light, producing instead a substantially uniform intensity along the direction parallel to the line lights.

A microscope has a light source that emits light to illuminate a sample, a first wavelength selection member that selectively transmits the light from the light source, a light splitter that reflects the light from the first wavelength selection member to epi-illuminate the sample and transmits the light emitted from the sample, and a second wavelength selection member that selectively transmits the light transmitted through the light splitter. The light splitter is constituted of a transparent member and a dichroic mirror coat disposed on the transparent member. The dichroic mirror coat is constituted of a stacked layer that efficiently reflects light having a wavelength selected by the first wavelength selection member and a stacked layer that reflects light on a short wavelength side from the light selected by the first wavelength selection member, light on a long wavelength side, light of the same band, or combined light.