US 7,072,103 B1Granted

Microscope with objective lens position control apparatus

AssigneeCypress Semiconductor Corporation

InventorNickey Joe Atchison

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Abstract

The invention enables construction of a microscope that has one or more advantageous characteristics as compared to previous microscopes. The microscope can be small and lightweight and, in particular, sufficiently small and light weight to be portable (e.g., smaller and far lighter than probe station microscopes used for microscopic liquid crystal analysis of a semiconductor device). The microscope can include a small and lightweight bellows that provides zoom capability. The microscope and/or a tripod that is used with the microscope can be implemented to provide objective lens position control capability (with any number of translational and/or rotational degrees of freedom). The microscope can include apparatus for ejecting a hot gas from the microscope to heat a specimen being observed with the microscope.

Claims27

Dependent claims

A microscope, comprising:

one or more objective lenses, wherein only a single objective lens at a time can be positioned proximate to a specimen to be operable;
optical apparatus for transmitting light to the specimen and for transmitting light reflected from the specimen through the operable objective lens;
viewing apparatus for receiving a magnified image of the specimen produced from the reflected light;
and
objective lens position control apparatus for moving the location of the operable objective lens to a desired location relative to the specimen, wherein the microscope does not include structure for supporting the specimen during operation of the microscope, and wherein the objective lens position control apparatus further comprises objective lens rotational position control apparatus, the objective lens rotational position control apparatus further comprising:
first objective lens rotational position control apparatus adapted to enable rotational position control about a first axis of rotation;
second objective lens rotational position control apparatus adapted to enable rotational position control about a second axis of rotation that is different from the first axis of rotation;
and
third objective lens rotational position control apparatus adapted to enable rotational position control about a third axis of rotation that is different from the first and second axes of rotation.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.