Confocal microscope

Abstract

The invented confocal microscope includes the light source part, the beam splitter mirror, the object lens, the worktable used for placing the sample, the conjugate diaphragm and the first detector. The beam splitter mirror splits the incident light into the transmission light and the reflected light. The conjugate diaphragm is conjugated with the focus point of the object lens. The light source part generates the coherent light. The microscope also includes the reflector. One of the transmitted light or reflected light through the object lens irradiates the sample. The other light irradiates the reflector. The light reflected from the sample passes the object lens, going to the beam splitter mirror where it meets the light reflected from the reflector so as to form the interference figure output from the conjugate diaphragm.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a confocal microscope, which can measure the three-dimensional shape of a sample. Background technique [0002] In the optical instrument industry, there is a type of instrument called a microscope, which can measure the length and width of an object, but in scientific research and production, it is often encountered in some situations that require the measurement of the height value on each X, Y coordinate, such as the processed surface roughness, etc. In this way, in 1957, a new optical instrument that can measure three-dimensional shape appeared - the confocal microscope. For its patent, see Minisky M's US patent US3013467 authorized in 1961. The name of its invention is Microscopy apparatus. For related articles, see Minisky M Memoiron inventing the confocal scanning microscope scanning in 1988. [0003] The principle of a general confocal microscope is shown in figure 1 , the light emitted from the pinhole illumination ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The three-dimensional shape often has multiple extremely high points that are higher than the surrounding areas. The heights of these many extremely high points may not exactly coincide with the focal plane of a certain scan. Infer the amount of defocus, and the size of the luminous flux is not only related to the defocus condition, but also related to processing conditions, materials and even the inclination of the measured surface, etc., resulting in the loss of measurement accuracy

In addition, the resolution in the Z direction is related to the numerical aperture and magnification of the objective lens, but the increase of the magnification of the objective lens has a great impact on the application range of the instrument, and it is difficult to make the numerical aperture large

Therefore, at present, the measurement accuracy of the general confocal microscope in the Z direction is only a few tenths of a micron, which is difficult to improve.

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