Method and systems for autofocusing
AssigneeAraceli Biosciences Inc.
InventorsMarguerite Vantangoli Policelli, Marshall Anderson, David Tasker, Tyler Wilson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are provided autofocusing an imaging system. In one example, a method includes identifying a target focal plane of a field-of-view (FOV) of each objective of the imaging system, the imaging system including two or more objectives, adjusting a vertical position of each objective relative to the target focal plane based on a light shape generated from a laser beam, and aligning a focus of each objective according to a power level detected by a sensor.
Claims18
A method for autofocusing an imaging system, comprising:
- identifying a target focal plane of a field-of-view (FOV) of each objective of the imaging system, the imaging system including two or more objectives wherein identifying the target focal plane includes identifying the target focal plane at a base of a microplate well and separating a first set of reflections of a laser beam from a second set of reflections of the laser beam, the first set of reflections reflected from a first interface at the base of the microplate well and the second set of reflections reflected from a second interface at the base of the microplate well;
- adjusting a vertical position of each objective relative to the target focal plane based on a light shape generated from the laser beam;
- and
- aligning a focus of each objective according to a readout value at a sensor, wherein aligning the focus of each objective includes focusing each objective at different wells of a microplate simultaneously.
An autofocus system for a multi-detector microscope system, comprising:
- a set of microscope assemblies arranged in an x-configuration, each of the set of microscope assemblies including;
- a laser-emitting device configured to emit a laser beam into an optical path of one of the set of microscope assemblies;
- a plurality of objects arranged in a transmission path of the laser-emitting device, the plurality of objects configured to interact with the laser beam, the plurality of objects including a microplate supporting specimens to be imaged by the multi-detector microscope system;
- a detector configured to receive reflections of the laser beam and align a focus of an objective based on the reflections;
- and
- a controller with computer readable instructions stored on non-transitory memory that, when executed to autofocus the objective, cause the controller to:
- activate the laser-emitting device;
- identify a target focal plane via identifying the target focal plane at a base of a well of the microplate and separating a first set of reflections of the laser beam from a second set of reflections of the laser beam, the first set of reflections reflected from a first interface at the base of the well of the microplate and the second set of reflections reflected from a second interface at the base of the well of the microplate;
- and
- adjust a position of the objective to align the focus of the objective with a base-sample interface of the well of the microplate according to a value correlated to a distance of the objective from the base-sample interface detected by the detector, wherein aligning the focus of each objective according to a power level includes raising a vertical positin of each objective past a first readout value of zero, and wherein the first readout value of zero corresponds to an alignment of each objective with the first interface.
A method for an autofocus system for a multi-detector quantitative microscopy system, comprising:
- focusing an objective of the multi-detector quantitative microscopy system by adjusting an alignment of the objective with a target interface at a well of a microplate, the alignment determined based on detection of the objective focus being within a focal range of the target interface according to a readout value at a sensor of the autofocus system;
- and
- aligning the focus of each objective according to a power level includes increasing a vertical position of each objective past a first readout value of zero, wherein the first readout value of zero corresponds to an alignment of each objective with the first interface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.