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US 8,576,483 B2Granted
Microscope and focusing method
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsNorihiro Tanabe, Takashi Yamamoto, Nobuhiro Hayashi, Ryu Narusawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a microscope, including: an illumination optical system; a first image creation optical system; a second image creation optical system; an illumination-field-diaphragm focus adjustment section; and a characteristic-quantity computation block, wherein the illumination-field-diaphragm focus adjustment section adjusts the image creation position for the illumination field diaphragm on the basis of the characteristic quantity computed by the characteristic-quantity computation block.
Claims10
A microscope, comprising:
- an illumination optical system provided with an illumination field diaphragm, and one or a plurality of illumination optical devices to serve as an optical system configured to radiate illumination light to a sample placed on a stage;
- a first image creation optical system provided with a first image taking device configured to take an image based on transmitted light passing through said sample, and one or a plurality of first optical devices configured to create said image based on said transmitted light on said first image taking device;
- a second image creation optical system provided with a light-beam splitting section configured to split said transmitted light propagating in said first image creation optical system in order to get a partial light beam from said transmitted light, a second image taking device configured to take a phase-difference image based on said partial light beam, and one or a plurality of second optical devices configured to create said phase-difference image based on said partial light beam on said second image taking device;
- an illumination-field-diaphragm focus adjustment section configured to adjust an image creation position at which an image of said illumination field diaphragm is created;
- and
- a characteristic-quantity computation block configured to compute a characteristic quantity, which represents a focus shift degree of said illumination field diaphragm, on the basis of an output signal generated by said second image taking device, wherein
- said illumination-field-diaphragm focus adjustment section adjusts said image creation position for said illumination field diaphragm on the basis of said characteristic quantity computed by said characteristic-quantity computation block;
- said phase-difference image includes first and second images created on said second image taking device in accordance with the shape of said illumination field diaphragm, and
- said characteristic-quantity computation block computes said characteristic quantity by making use of a difference in intensity between an output signal of said first image and an output signal of said second image at every pixel on said second image taking device;
- a position control section configured to control the position of said stage;
- and
- a thickness-change computation block configured to compute a change of the thickness of a slide glass on which said sample is mounted, wherein
- said phase-difference image includes first and second images created on said second image taking device in accordance with the shape of said illumination field diaphragm,
- said thickness-change computation block computes a change of said thickness by making use of a difference in intensity between an output signal of said first image and an output signal of said second image at every pixel on said second image taking device, and
- said position control section changes the position of said stage toward said illumination optical system on the basis of said thickness change computed by said thickness-change computation block.
12 more elements
A microscope, comprising:
- an illumination optical system provided with an illumination field diaphragm, and one or a plurality of illumination optical devices to serve as an optical system configured to radiate illumination light to a sample placed on a stage;
- a first image creation optical system provided with a first image taking device configured to take an image based on transmitted light passing through said sample, and one or a plurality of first optical devices configured to create said image based on said transmitted light on said first image taking device;
- a second image creation optical system provided with a light-beam splitting section configured to split said transmitted light propagating in said first image creation optical system in order to get a partial light beam from said transmitted light, a second image taking device configured to take a phase-difference image based on said partial light beam, and one or a plurality of second optical devices configured to create said phase-difference image based on said partial light beam on said second image taking device;
- an illumination-field-diaphragm focus adjustment section configured to adjust an image creation position at which an image of said illumination field diaphragm is created;
- and
- a characteristic-quantity computation block configured to compute a characteristic quantity, which represents a focus shift degree of said illumination field diaphragm, on the basis of an output signal generated by said second image taking device, wherein said illumination-field-diaphragm focus adjustment section adjusts said image creation position for said illumination field diaphragm on the basis of said characteristic quantity computed by said characteristic-quantity computation block;
- a position control section configured to control the position of said stage;
- and
- a thickness-change computation block configured to compute a change of the thickness of a slide glass on which said sample is mounted, wherein
- said phase-difference image includes first and second images created on said second image taking device in accordance with the shape of said illumination field diaphragm,
- said thickness-change computation block computes a change of said thickness by making use of a difference in edge position between said first image taken in an in-focus state and said first image taken in an actual state and/or a difference in edge position between said second image taken in an in-focus state and said second image taken in an actual state, and
- said position control section changes the position of said stage toward said illumination optical system on the basis of said thickness change computed by said thickness-change computation block.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.