Optical system for cell imaging
OwnerJohn S. Laudoinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A microscope system (10, 10′, 10″, 10′″) includes a laser (18) or light emitting diode (18′″) that generates source light having a non-uniform spatial distribution. An optical system includes an objective (40) defining a field of view, and an optical train (22, 22′, 22″, 22′″) configured to convert the source light into an enlarged-diameter collimated light, to spatially homogenize the enlarged-diameter collimated light, and to couple the homogenized enlarged-diameter collimated light into the objective to provide substantially uniform static illumination of the field of view. A camera system (56) is statically optically coupled by the objective with at least most of the field of view.
Claims25
An optical system for imaging a microscope field of view, the optical system comprising:
- an objective focused on the microscope field of view;
- and
- an optical train including one or more stationary optical components configured to receive a small diameter laser beam having a non-uniform spatial distribution and to output a corrected spatial distribution to the objective that when focused by the objective at the microscope field of view provides substantially uniform static illumination over substantially the entire microscope field of view, the optical train including:
- a large-area stationary optical component that improves spatial uniformity of collimated light having a diameter substantially larger than the diameter of the small diameter laser beam,
- a stationary beam expander disposed before the large-area stationary optical component in the optical train, the stationary beam expander expanding the small diameter laser beam to produce collimated light having a substantially larger diameter suitable for coupling into the large-area stationary optical component, and
- a stationary beam reducer disposed after the large-area stationary optical component in the optical train, the stationary beam reducer coupling the collimated light into the objective.
An optical system for imaging a microscope field of view, the optical system comprising:
- an objective focused on the microscope field of view;
- and
- an optical train including one or more stationary optical components configured to receive source light having a non-uniform spatial distribution and to output a corrected spatial distribution to the objective that when focused by the objective at the microscope field of view provides substantially uniform static illumination over substantially the entire microscope field of view, the optical train including:
- a large-area stationary optical component that improves spatial uniformity of collimated light,
- a stationary collimator disposed before the large-area stationary optical component in the optical train, the stationary collimator converting the source light into collimated light having a diameter suitable for coupling into the large-area stationary optical component, and
- one or more coupling optical components disposed after the large-area stationary optical component in the optical train, the one or more coupling optical components at least reducing a diameter of the collimated light to couple the collimated light into the objective.
A microscope system comprising:
- a laser, semiconductor laser diode, or light emitting diode generating source light having a non-uniform spatial distribution;
- an optical system including (i) an objective defining a field of view and (ii) an optical train including one or more stationary optical components configured to receive the source light having the non-uniform spatial distribution and to output a corrected spatial distribution to the objective that when focused by the objective at the field of view provides substantially uniform static illumination over substantially the entire field of view, the optical train including:
- a stationary beam expander expanding the source light to produce enlarged-diameter collimated light having substantially enlarged diameter compared with the source light,
- a large-area stationary optical component disposed after the stationary beam expander in the optical train that improves spatial uniformity of the enlarged-diameter collimated light, and
- a stationary beam reducer disposed after the large-area stationary optical component in the optical train, the stationary beam reducer coupling the enlarged-diameter collimated light into the objective;
- and
- a camera system statically optically coupled by the objective with at least most of the field of view.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.