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US 5,009,488 AGranted
Filter accessory for an imaging microspectrofluorimeter
AssigneeUniversity of Massachusetts Medical Center
InventorsFredric S. Fay, Kevin E. Fogarty, Cyril Rodgers
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A microscope is modified to allow for precise imaging of samples using different filters at different focal planes under computer control. A filter accessory includes a filter disc having bandpass filters. The filter disc may be rotated to move a selected filter into the optical path between a light source and the microscope sample. Adjustment of the image plane of the microscope is controlled by the computer using feedback from a lens position sensor.
Claims7
A filter accessory comprising:
- an optical conduit between a light inlet and a light outlet;
- an inlet connector at the inlet end of the optical conduit for coupling the conduit into a microscope system;
- an outlet connector complementary to the inlet connector at the outlet end of the optical conduit for coupling the conduit into a microscope system;
- a filter assembly eccentrically mounted relative to the optical conduit, the assembly including a filter housing and a filter disc within the filter housing, the filter disc having a plurality of removable filter elements circumferentially spaced about a filter axis offset from the optical conduit;
- and
- a filter drive for rotating the filter discs about the filter axis.
3 more elements
A filter accessory comprising:
- an optical conduit between a light inlet and a light outlet;
- an inlet connector at the inlet end of the optical conduit for coupling the conduit into an optical system;
- an outlet connector at the outlet end of the optical conduit for coupling the conduit into an optical system;
- a filter assembly eccentrically mounted relative to the optical conduit, the assembly including a filter housing and a filter disc within the filter housing, the filter disc having a plurality of filters circumferentially spaced about a filter axis offset from the optical conduit;
- drive means for rotating the filters about the filter axis;
- and
- means for sensing the position of the filter disc as each filter is positioned between the light inlet and light outlet.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.