Method for the optical acquisition of characteristic sizes of an illuminated sample

• US 6,703,621 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2002
• Issued: 03/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Original Assignee: CARL Zeiss JENA GmbH (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Inventors: Wolleschensky, Ralf
• Primary Examiner(s): Gutierrez, Diego
• Assistant Examiner(s): Guadalupe, Yaritza
• Application Number:
  US10/051,205
• Publication Number:
  US 20030071227A1
• Time in Patent Office: 783 Days
• Field of Search: 250/458.1, 250/459.1, 356/317, 356/318, 356/326, 356/328
• US Class Current: 250/459.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/2803 using photoelectric array detector
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/64 Fluorescence; Phosphorescence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/002 Scanning microscopes scanning near field optical microscopes G01Q60/18

Abstract

A method for the optical acquisition of characteristic quantities of an illuminated specimen, wherein a signal that is backscattered, reflected and/or fluoresced and/or transmitted from the specimen comprises the steps of detecting the signal by a spatially resolving detector in a plurality of channels in that the radiation coming from the specimen is imaged on the detector so as to be spectrally split and combining detection channels so that the quantity of measurements that are read out and further processed is less than the number of detection channels.

Claims

1. A method for the optical acquisition of characteristic quantities of an illuminated specimen, wherein a signal is backscattered, reflected, fluoresced or transmitted from the specimen, comprising the steps of:

detecting the signal by a spatially resolving detector in a plurality of channels in that the radiation coming from the specimen is imaged on the detector so as to be spectrally split; and

electronically combining detection channels so that the quantity of measurements that are read out and further processed is less than the number of detection channels.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the combining is a summation.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein a shifting of the combined measurements is carried out or the number of combined detector channels is changed.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein shifting takes place by at least one detector channel.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the magnitude of shifting of the detection channels is variable.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein intermediate values are determined from read out measurements by an algorithm for the purpose of an efficient readout of a detector line.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein a shift of the summation pattern along a line detector is carried out by a multiplexer.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein a spectrally resolved measurement of spectra is carried out by a dispersive element preceding the detector.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the dispersive element is swivelable about at least one axis.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the spectrally split radiation is shifted relative to the detector.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein, with a dispersive element remaining stationary in at least one of its swiveling axes, a spectrally changing effect of the swiveling in this axis is carried out by a scan unit or by displacement of the detector.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detected wavelength distribution is correlated imagewise in storage to the respective image point coordinate x, y or z or an additional time correlation is carried out with measured time-variable sequences.