US 9,435,991 B2 · Manipulation of topography of large-format glass slides

Abstract

System and method for correcting a topography of an object being imaged by a multi-array microscope system. The object is forced to conform to a surface of the substrate supporting the object with a suction force and the topography of the chosen object surface is determined. The supporting substrate is bent with the use of force applied to the substrate with at least one actuator such as to reduce the deviations of the determined topography of the object's surface from a pre-determined reference surface by transferring the changes in the curvature of the supporting substrate to the object. In particular, the chosen surface of the object can be substantially flattened for ease of simultaneous imaging of this surface with multiple objectives of the multi-array microscope.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method for correcting a topography of a surface of an object, the method comprising:

disposing the object on a first surface of a supporting substrate, the supporting substrate having a second surface opposite to the first surface, the supporting substrate having a fluid port and structured to fluidly connect the first surface with the port through a body of the supporting substrate;
measuring the object to determine differences between the topography of an upper surface of the object and a reference surface;
and
deforming the supporting substrate to change curvatures of both the first and second surfaces and to reduce said differences.

1 more element

A microscope system for imaging an object, the system comprising:

multiple objectives operably connected to one another to enable simultaneous imaging of the object along an optical axis;
a supporting substrate having first and second surfaces and dimensioned to hold the object on the first surface of the supporting substrate, the supporting substrate equipped to force a first surface of the object to substantially conform to the first surface of the supporting substrate as a result of applying a suction force through the substrate to the first surface of the object;
and
a set of actuators configured to change a curvature of a second surface of the supporting substrate, the set juxtaposed with the second surface of the supporting substrate;
a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with a computer-readable program product thereon, said storage medium being operably connected with at least one of the set of actuators and the multiple objectives, the computer-readable program product including
program code for storing, on said storage medium, imaging data representing results of the simultaneous imaging of the object with multiple objectives;
and
program code for determining corrective data based on the imaging data, the corrective data representing a map of change of a curvature of the second surface of the supporting substrate.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Manipulation of topography of large-format glass slides

Life of this patent

Manipulation of topography of large-format glass slides

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19