Method and system for compensating intensity fluctuations of an illumination system in a confocal microscope

A method for compensating intensity fluctuations of an illumination system in a confocal microscope having a scanning device and capable of generating a three-dimensional image of a specimen, the method comprising:

• providing a first electrical signal corresponding to light reflected from the specimen, providing a second electrical signal corresponding to an illumination reference, and providing a third electrical signal corresponding to a position signal, the position signal being generated by the scanning device;
• converting the first electrical signal into a first digitized signal, converting the second electrical signal into a second digitized signal, and converting the third electrical signal into a third digitized signal;
• compensating intensity fluctuations by processing the first and the second digitized signals in a fluctuation compensation unit to obtain a quotient of the second digitized signal over the first digitized signal;
• and
• sending the quotient and the third digitized signal to a computer capable of utilizing the quotient and the third digitized signal for displaying the three-dimensional image of the specimen.