444 results about "Lateral resolution" patented technology

A confocal photoacoustic microscopy system includes a laser configured to emit a light pulse, a focusing assembly configured to receive the light pulse and to focus the light pulse into an area inside an object, an ultrasonic transducer configured to receive acoustic waves emitted by the object in response to the light pulse, and an electronic system configured to process the acoustic waves and to generate an image of the area inside the object. The focusing assembly is further configured to focus the light pulse on the object in such a way that a focal point of the focusing assembly coincides with a focal point of the at least one ultrasonic transducer.

Methods are disclosed for printing (2-7) multilayer electronic components, and circuits on a surface (2), where at least one of the layers is formed by a redox reaction (6) occurring in a deposited solution (4, 5). Electronic components may comprise semiconductors such as in transistors or diode, or metal oxide or electrolyte such as in batteries or fuel cells, or are capacitors, inductors, and resistors. Preferably, the oxidizer of the redox reaction is a strong oxidizer, and the reducer is a strong reducer (3). Reactions are preferably sufficiently exothermic that they can be initiated (6), rather than driven to completion, by microwave or other suitable energy sources, and may yield substantially pure metal or metal oxide layers. The solution being deposited (5) may have either high concentrations of particulates, such as 60-80 wt. % of dry weight, or low concentrations of particulates, such as ≦5 wt. % or ≦2 wt. %. Low particulate content provides printing of structures having lateral resolution of ≦10 μm, ≦5 μm, or ≦1 μm.

Due to their parallel illumination and acquisition for all the pixels, today's state-of-the-art time-of-flight (TOF) range cameras suffer from erroneous measurements caused by multiple reflections in the scene. The invention proposes to compensate for the multi-path fusing the results obtained by applying two spatially different illumination schemes, typically one to achieve highest possible lateral resolution and for the second one structuring the emitted light and by doing so lowering the lateral resolution but limiting the impact of multiple reflections.

A method and system is provided for enhanced ultrasonic detection and imaging of small defects inside or at the surface of an object. The Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) has been used to improve the detectability and to enhance images in conventional ultrasonics and this method has recently been adapted to laser-ultrasonics. In the present invention, an improved version of the frequency-domain SAFT (F-SAFT) based on the angular spectrum approach is described. The method proposed includes temporal deconvolution of the waveform data to enhance both axial and lateral resolutions, control of the aperture and of the frequency bandwidth to improve signal-to-noise ratio, as well as spatial interpolation of the subsurface images. All the above operations are well adapted to the frequency domain calculations and embedded in the F-SAFT data processing. The aperture control and the spatial interpolation allow also a reduction of sampling requirements to further decrease both inspection and processing times. This method is of particular interest when ultrasound is generated by a laser and detected by either a contact ultrasonic transducer or a laser interferometer.

This invention permits retinal images to be acquired at high speed and with unprecedented resolution in three dimensions (4×4×6 μm). The instrument achieves high lateral resolution by using adaptive optics to correct optical aberrations of the human eye in real time. High axial resolution and high speed are made possible by the use of Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography. Using this system, we have demonstrated the ability to image microscopic blood vessels and the cone photoreceptor mosaic.

A fiber-optic bundle based optical coherence tomography (OCT) probe method is demonstrated in a multimode optical fiber bundle based OCT system. The system can achieve a lateral resolution of 12 μm and an axial resolution of 10 μm using a super-luminescent diode source. This imaging approach eliminates any moving parts in the probe and has a primary advantage for use in extremely compact and safe OCT endoscopes to image internal organs and great potential to be combined with confocal endoscopic microscopy.

Method, apparatus and arrangement according an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be provided for generating an image of at least one portion of an anatomical structure. For example, the portion can have an area greater than about 1 mm2, and the image can have a resolution a transverse resolution that is below about 10 μm. For example, light can be scanned over such portion so as to generate first information which is related to the portion, where the light may be provided through a diffraction arrangement to generate a spectrally dispersed line. Method, apparatus and arrangement according to a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be provided for positioning a radiation or optical beam within an anatomical structure based on signals generated by scanning a portion of the structure using the same or a different beam.

The invention relates to scanning magnetic microscope which has a photoluminescent nanoprobe implanted in the tip apex of an atomic force microscope (AFM), a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) or a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) and exhibits optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) in the vicinity of unpaired electron spins or nuclear magnetic moments in the sample material. The described spin microscope has demonstrated nanoscale lateral resolution and single spin sensitivity for the AFM and STM embodiments.

A laser scanning imaging system and method for obtaining an extended-depth-of-field image of a volume of a sample are provided. The system includes a laser module generating an input laser beam, a beam shaping module including an axicon and a Fourier-transform lens, and an imaging module including an objective lens and a detecting assembly. The axicon, Fourier-transform lens and objective lens are formed and disposed to successively convert the input laser beam into an intermediate non-diffracting beam, an intermediate annular beam, and an excitation non-diffracting beam. The excitation beam is projected onto the sample and has a depth of field and transverse resolution together defining a three-dimensional excitation region. The detecting assembly collects electromagnetic radiation from the excitation region to obtain one pixel of the extended-depth-of-field image. The system further includes a two-dimensional scanning module for scanning the excitation beam over the sample and build, pixel-by-pixel, the extended-depth-of-field image.

A lens includes a diffractive surface having an etched structure and a refractive surface having a curved structure. The lens reduces chromatic aberration of incident light and extends depth of focus. In one alternative, the etched structure is a calculated phase pattern or a pattern that is embossed or diamond tuned. In another alternative, the curved structure is convex shaped or concave shaped. In yet another alternative, the lens is an imaging lens wherein high lateral resolution of incident light is preserved.

The present invention discloses one kind of spectral-domain optical coherent tomography endoscopic image system for in vivo optical biopsy, and the system includes one fiber optical interferometer, one imaging probe, one detection unit, one image acquiring card and one computer. The detection unit has grating spectrograph for high imaging speed, and the imaging probe has axial axicon lens and inside rotating right angle prism or circularly symmetric beam splitter combined to ensure high transverse resolution in the whole depth range, so as to realize circularly scanning endoscopic imaging. The present invention proposes two embodiments of circularly scanning probe and their corresponding system structures. The present invention may be applied in the optical endoscopic biopsy and analytic study of oral cavity, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, etc.

Increasing the effective aperture of an ultrasound imaging probe by including more than one probe head and using the elements of all of the probes to render an image can greatly improve the lateral resolution of the generated image. In order to render an image, the relative positions of all of the elements must be known precisely. A calibration fixture is described in which the probe assembly to be calibrated is placed above a test block and transmits ultrasonic pulses through the test block to an ultrasonic sensor. As the ultrasonic pulses are transmitted though some or all of the elements in the probe to be tested, the differential transit times of arrival of the waveform are measured precisely. From these measurements the relative positions of the probe elements can be computed and the probe can be aligned.

Methods and apparatus are presented for obtaining high-resolution 3-D images of a sample over a range of wavelengths, optionally with polarisation-sensitive detection. In preferred embodiments a spectral domain OCT apparatus is used to sample the complex field of light reflected or scattered from a sample, providing full range imaging. In certain embodiments structured illumination is utilised to provide enhanced lateral resolution. In certain embodiments the resolution or depth of field of images is enhanced by digital refocusing or digital correction of aberrations in the sample. Individual sample volumes are imaged using single shot techniques, and larger volumes can be imaged by stitching together images of adjacent volumes. In preferred embodiments a 2-D lenslet array is used to sample the reflected or scattered light in the Fourier plane or the image plane, with the lenslet array suitably angled with respect to the dispersive axis of a wavelength dispersive element such that the resulting beamlets are dispersed onto unique sets of pixels of a 2-D sensor array.

Hilbert phase microscopy (HPM) as an optical technique for measuring high transverse resolution quantitative phase images associated with optically transparent objects. Due to its single-shot nature, HPM is suitable for investigating rapid phenomena that take place in transparent structures such as biological cells. A preferred embodiment is used for measuring biological systems including measurements on red blood cells, while its ability to quantify dynamic processes on the millisecond scale, for example, can be illustrated with measurements on evaporating micron-size water droplets.

The present invention integrates the surface plasmon resonance and common-path phase-shift interferometry techniques to develop a microscope for measuring the two-dimensional spatial phase variation caused by biomolecular interactions on a sensing chip without the need for additional labeling. The common-path phase-shift interferometry technique has the advantage of long-term stability, even when subjected to external disturbances. Hence, the developed microscope meets the requirements of the real-time kinetic studies involved in biomolecular interaction analysis. The surface plasmon resonance microscope of the present invention using common-path phase-shift interferometry demonstrates a detection limit of 2×10⁻⁷ refractive index change, a long-term phase stability of 2.5×10⁻⁴π rms over four hours, and a spatial phase resolution of 10⁻³ π with a lateral resolution of 100 μm.

This disclosure presents systems for x-ray microscopy using an array of micro-beams having a micro- or nano-scale beam intensity profile to provide selective illumination of micro- or nano-scale regions of an object. An array detector is positioned such that each pixel of the detector only detects x-rays corresponding to a single micro- or nano-beam. This allows the signal arising from each x-ray detector pixel to be identified with the specific, limited micro- or nano-scale region illuminated, allowing sampled transmission image of the object at a micro- or nano-scale to be generated while using a detector with pixels having a larger size and scale. Detectors with higher quantum efficiency may therefore be used, since the lateral resolution is provided solely by the dimensions of the micro- or nano-beams. The micro- or nano-scale beams may be generated using an arrayed x-ray source or a set of Talbot interference fringes.

The invention discloses a method for improving an optical scanning holographic tomography effect, and belongs to the field of optical tomography. The method can solve the defect in the conventional optical scanning technology that restored section images have louder out-of-focus noise, in real time. The method comprises the following steps: utilizing a random phase in the optics encryption technique, changing a certain pupil function in a conventional optical scanning holographic system into a stochastic phase pupil function, and equaling restore of out-of-focus layer images into decryption under the condition of mistakenly decrypting a secret key, thereby enabling the out-of-focus layer images overlaid on the restored section images to be gaussian white noise with statistical independence and greatly reducing the influence of the out-of-focus noise on the focus layer images. Meanwhile the out-of-focus noise can also be filtered through design of a gaussian filter, so that the longitudinal resolution of the system can be improved; besides, through the adoption of the method, the bandwidth of the optical transfer function is wider, and the transverse resolution of the restored section images can be higher.