Tip drive apparatus
AssigneeOlympus Corporation
InventorsYasuo Sasaki, Yuka Imaoka, Kiyohiko Tateyama
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A tip drive apparatus includes a shaft to which a support unit on which a tip unit is formed, and a main unit configured to move the shaft, thereby to move the tip unit toward an object while remaining held at a prescribed angle. The shaft is arranged to meet four requirements including a first requirement of being prevented from contacting a condenser lens of an inverted microscope to which the main unit is attached, a second requirement of providing a region in which a distal end of the support unit is recognized, a third requirement of being prevented from contacting a sidewall of a dish for holding the object, and a fourth requirement of providing a region in which the dish moves relative to the tip unit.
Claims13
A tip drive apparatus capable to moving a tip unit toward an object, while holding the tip unit at a prescribed angle, the tip unit being formed on a support unit having flexibility and directed to the object at the prescribed angle, the apparatus comprising:
- a shaft to which the support unit on which the tip unit is formed;
- and
- a main unit configured to move the shaft, thereby to move the tip unit toward the object while remaining held at the prescribed angle,
- wherein the shaft is arranged to meet four requirements including:
- a first requirement of being prevented from contacting a condenser lens of an inverted microscope to which the main unit is attached;
- a second requirement of providing a region in which a distal end of the support unit is recognized;
- a third requirement of being prevented from contacting a sidewall of a dish for holding the object;
- and
- a fourth requirement of providing a region in which the dish moves relative to the tip unit.
A tip drive apparatus capable to moving a tip unit toward an object, while holding the tip unit at a prescribed angle, the tip unit being formed on a support unit having flexibility and directed to the object at the prescribed angle, the apparatus comprising:
- a shaft to which the support unit on which the tip unit is formed;
- and
- a main unit configured to move the shaft, thereby to move the tip unit toward the object while remaining held at the prescribed angle,
- wherein the shaft is arranged to meet three requirements including:
- a first requirement of being positioned outside a region where a condenser lens of an inverted microscope to which the main unit is attached is located, while remaining at a level above a lower surface of the condenser lens;
- a second requirement of being positioned outside a region where a distal end of the support unit is recognized, while remaining at a level between the lower surface of the condenser lens and an upper edge of a sidewall of a dish for holding the object;
- and
- a third requirement of being positioned outside the region where the distal end of the support unit is recognized and a region that the sidewall of the dish sweeps as the dish moves outwards relative to the tip unit, while remaining at a level below the upper edge of the sidewall of the dish.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.