Confocal Microscope Axial Scanning With a Tunable Detection Lens
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing confocal microscopy methods are slow and inefficient for recording three-dimensional data of samples, especially living samples, due to the need for mechanical movement of large masses, which limits the ability to capture fast time-dependent processes.
Innovation Solution
A microscope and method utilizing a controllable optics unit with variable refractive power in the detection beam path to vary the axial pose of sample planes optically conjugate to the camera sensor, allowing rapid image recording without mechanical movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If mechanical movement of sample stage or objective is used to achieve optical sectioning at different axial depths, then three-dimensional image representation can be generated, but the process is slow and causes vibrations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical movement of the sample stage or objective with an electronically tunable lens (ETL) in the detection beam path. The ETL changes its refractive power electrically to vary the axial pose of the imaged plane, eliminating the need for mechanical displacement and associated vibrations while achieving rapid optical sectioning at different axial depths.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the refractive power parameter of the lens in the detection beam path using an electronically tunable lens. By electrically adjusting the refractive power, the system rapidly varies the axial focus position without mechanical movement, enabling fast optical sectioning and significantly improving imaging speed while reducing time loss.
2Measurement precision
If confocal microscopy with scanning is used to achieve high-contrast images, then optical sectioning is achieved, but frame rates are limited to a few Hz
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic control of the detection beam path focus position through an electronically tunable lens. The system can rapidly switch between different axial planes by changing the lens refractive power, enabling dynamic optical sectioning at frame rates potentially up to 100 fps while maintaining high image contrast through confocal imaging principles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces slow mechanical scanning and focusing mechanisms with an electronically tunable lens that can rapidly adjust its focal plane. This substitution enables the system to achieve both high image contrast through confocal sectioning and high frame rates by eliminating mechanical inertia and vibration limitations.
3Adaptability or versatility
If mechanical movement is used to displace sample or objective for axial imaging, then three-dimensional data can be recorded, but large masses must be accelerated and moved
Solution Approach 1:
The patent substitutes mechanical displacement of heavy sample stages or objectives with an electronically tunable lens in the detection beam path. The ETL changes refractive power to achieve axial imaging at different depths without moving large masses, thereby maintaining adaptability for three-dimensional imaging while dramatically reducing device complexity and mechanical requirements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables significantly faster imaging with optical sectioning, reducing latency times and enabling high-speed three-dimensional image capture, potentially up to 100 frames per second, by maintaining high energy density over a larger axial range.
Implementation Method 1
for the purpose of varying an axial pose of a plane in the sample optically conjugate to a sensor surface of the camera, the detection beam path comprises a controllable optics unit with variable refractive power
Implementation Method 2
a so-called confocal stop is arranged in a plane conjugate to the focal plane of the microscope objective. This stop has the effect that fluorescence radiation generated outside the focal plane is prevented from propagating to the sensor
Implementation Method 3
the illumination beam path comprises a cylindrical optics unit for shaping the excitation light to form an illumination line
Data Source
AI summary
A microscope having a light source for transmitting excitation light, an illumination beam path comprising a cylindrical optics unit for shaping the excitation light to form an illumination line and a scanning unit for linearly scanning the sample, a detection beam path for guiding emission light radiated by the sample onto a camera for recording images of the sample, and a control unit for controlling at least the scanning unit and/or the camera and for evaluating measurement data from the camera, the control unit being configured to synchronize respective readout regions on a sensor surface of the camera with a position of the excitation light in a sample region. For varying an axial pose of a plane in the sample optically conjugate to a sensor surface of the camera, the detection beam path comprises a controllable optics unit with variable refractive power, which is effective for the entire emission light that has propagated in the detection beam path to the camera.