Apparatus and method for preparing sliced specimen

A sliced specimen preparing apparatus, comprising:

• a transfer section that transfers a specimen block mounted on a block placement table in an X-axial direction, the block placement table moves at an inclination angle of a specimen block having a flat and smooth top face relative to an XY orthogonal two-axial directions and a Z-axis directional height position;
• a line sensor located in a transfer route of the block placement table by the transfer section, the line sensor comprising a projector and a light receiver disposed opposite to each other in the Y-axial direction and emitting light having a width in a Z-axial direction;
• a cutter extends in the Y-axial direction to slice a surface layer portion of the specimen block transferred in the X-axial direction by the transfer section;
• a carrier tape guide section for moving a thin slice of the specimen block sliced by the cutter while carrying the thin slice on a surface of a carrier tape;
• a slice sticking part that makes a portion of the carrier tape that carries the thin slice come close to a surface of a slide and thereby allows the thin slice carried by the carrier tape to be transferred onto the surface of the slide;
• and
• an operation controller that controls the specimen block transfer section, the cutter section, the detector, the carrier tape guide section, and the slice sticking part for automatically and continuously slicing the surface layer portion of the specimen block by the cutter, and transferring the sliced surface layer portion onto the slide to continuously prepare a sliced specimen;
• wherein the operation controller controls the transfer section to move approximately in a X-axis directional intermediate position of the specimen block to align with a set position of the line sensor;
• wherein the operation controller further detects a received light amount from the line sensor and adjusts an inclination direction of the block placement table in the Y-axial direction to fix the Y-axis directional inclination angle of the specimen block at an angle at which the received light amount of the line sensor becomes maximum;
• wherein the operation controller controls the transfer section to move the block placement table back and forth in the X-axial direction by a predetermined amount to detect the received light amount from the line sensor at that position, and further controls the X-axis directional inclination angle of the specimen block that the operation controller calculates based on the predetermined amount of movement of the specimen block in the X-axial direction and the information on the received light amount from the line sensor at each position, and
• the inclination angle of the block placement table is adjusted such that the calculated X-axis directional inclination angle makes a predetermined angle with respect to an XY plane.

A sliced specimen preparing apparatus for sticking a thin slice obtained by slicing a surface layer portion of a specimen block and transferred while being adsorbed on a carrier tape, to a slide to which an adhesive liquid is applied, the apparatus comprising:

• a slide supply section capable of storing the slide in an unused state and carrying out the slide one by one;
• a first transfer section extending from the slide supply section in a direction crossing a traveling track of the carrier tape;
• an adhesive liquid application section for applying the adhesive liquid onto a predetermined position of the slide, at a place on the first transfer section located between a sticking position, to which the thin slice is stuck, on the slide transferred by the first transfer section and the slide supply section;
• a slice sticking part for making the thin slice transfer onto the slide by performing alignment such that the thin slice adsorbed on the carrier tape is made to face the sticking position on the slide transferred by the first transfer section, and by making the carrier tape come into contact with the slide;
• a second transfer section provided in parallel to the first transfer section, for transferring the slide transferred by the first transfer section in an opposite direction to the transfer direction of the first transfer section;
• a returning transfer section provided in communication with the second transfer section, for supplying the slide transferred by the second transfer section to the first transfer section again;
• a carrying-out section provided in communication with the second transfer section, for carrying out the slide transferred by the second transfer section to the outside of the apparatus;
• a switch section for switching the transfer direction of the slide transferred by the second transfer section toward one of the returning transfer section and the carrying-out section;
• and
• wherein an operation controller controls the first transfer section, the second transfer section, the returning transfer section, the carrying-out section and the switch section.