Microscope with extended field of vision

• US 7,253,946 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2003
• Issued: 08/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Original Assignee: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Inventors: Potsaid, Benjamin Michael, Bellouard, Yves, Wen, John T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Thong Q
• Application Number:
  US10/525,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20050243412A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,422 Days
• Field of Search: 359368-390, 359/363, 359738-740, 359200-214, 348/79, 250/201.3, 250/238
• US Class Current: 359/368
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/002 Scanning microscopes scanning near field optical microscopes G01Q60/18
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/36 arranged for photographic purposes or projection purposes G02B21/18 takes precedenceor digital imaging or video purposes including associated control and data processing arrangements image data processing per se G06T
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/367 providing an output produced by processing a plurality of individual source images, e.g. image tiling, montage, composite images, depth sectioning, image comparison

Abstract

An optical system is provided for creating a mosaic image of a large field of view through a microscope at fast refresh rates of about 25 Hz with a high resolution that is free of blurring or aberrations. The optical system includes an objective lens assembly (20), an iris (30), one or more scanning mirrors (40) for high-speed scanning, one or more imaging lenses and irises (50, 60, 80), and a high-speed imaging device (70) arranged in that order from an object. The optical system also includes a mechanism for processing and constructing scanned and captured images into a mosaic image.

Claims

1. An optical system for enlarging a field of view with respect to an object by high-speed scanning, image capture, and image mosaicking along an optical path, comprising:

an objective lens or lens assembly positioned downstream from the object along the optical path so that the object is positioned at a focal plane of the objective lens or lens assembly;

an iris downstream from the objective lens or lens assembly along the optical path;

one or more scanning mirrors placed downstream from the iris along the optical path for optical high-speed scanning;

one or more imaging lenses downstream of the scanning mirrors along the optical path;

a high-speed digital imaging device downstream of said one or more imaging lenses along the optical path; and

means for processing and constructing scanned and captured images into a mosaic image.

2. An optical system according to claim 1, further comprising a laser in the optical path between the scanning mirrors and imaging lenses.

3. An optical system according to claim 1, wherein the system has a refresh rate in the range of 0 Hz to 25 Hz.

4. An optical system according to claim 1, wherein the objective lens is an achromat with a focal length of about 50 mm, and a diameter of about 25.4 mm.

5. An optical system according to claim 1, wherein the imaging lenses are a converging lens with a focal length of about 50 mm, and a diverging lens downstream of the converging lens along the optical path with a focal length of about 9 mm.

6. An optical system according to claim 5, wherein the converging lens has a diameter of about 25.4 mm, and the diverging lens has a diameter of about 9 mm.

7. An optical system according to claim 1, wherein the high-speed digital imaging device is a charge coupled device or complementary metal oxide semiconductor camera.

8. An optical system according to claim 1, wherein the mosaic image is 4×

4, with an image area of each dimension being 2 mm×

1.5 mm and an overall field of view being 8 mm×

6 mm at a resolution of 320×

240.

9. An optical system according to claim 1, wherein the system completes a mosaic image in 40 ms.

10. An optical system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more imaging lenses are combined with an iris.

11. An optical system according to claim 1, further comprising an illumination system upstream of the object.

12. An optical system for enlarging a field of view with respect to an object by high-speed scanning, image capture, and image mosaicking along an optical path, comprising:

an objective lens assembly positioned downstream from the object along the optical path so that the object is positioned at a focal plane of the objective lens assembly;

an iris downstream from the objective lens assembly along the optical path;

one or more galvanometric scanning mirrors placed downstream from the iris along the optical path for optical high-speed scanning;

one or more imaging lenses downstream of the galvanometric scanning mirrors along the optical path;

a high-speed digital imaging device downstream of said one or more imaging lenses along the optical path; and

means for executing a dedicated algorithm for processing and constructing scanned and captured images into a mosaic image.

13. An optical system according to claim 12, wherein the objective lens is an achromat lens.

14. An optical system according to claim 12, wherein the system has a refresh rate of 25 Hz.

15. An optical system according to claim 12, wherein the high-speed digital imaging device is a charge coupled device or complementary metal oxide semiconductor camera.

16. An optical system according to claim 12, wherein the mosaic image is 4×

4, with an image area of each dimension being 2 mm×

1.5 mm and an overall field of view being 8 mm×

6 mm at a resolution of 320×

240.

17. An optical system according to claim 12, wherein the means for executing a dedicated algorithm is a computer.

18. An optical system according to claim 12, wherein the one or more imaging lenses are combined with an iris.

19. An optical system according to claim 12, further comprising an illumination system upstream of the object.

20. A method for enlarging a field of view with respect to an object along an optical path, comprising the steps of:

placing an object at a focal plane of an objective lens so that rays reflecting off the object are collimated at scanning mirrors placed downstream from the objective lens along the optical path;

acquiring images of different segments of the object by scanning the reflected rays with the scanning mirrors at a high speed;

forming an image onto a digital imaging device from the images acquired by the scanning mirrors; and

constructing a mosaic image from images captured by the digital imaging device.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the method achieves a refresh rate of 25 Hz.

22. The method according to claim 20, wherein the method for producing the mosaic image is achieved in 40 ms.

23. The method according to claim 20, wherein the high-speed digital imaging device is a charge coupled device or complementary metal oxide semiconductor camera.

24. The method according to claim 20, wherein the constructed mosaic image is 4×

4, with an image area of each dimension being 2 mm×

1.5 mm and an overall field of view being 8 mm×

6 mm at a resolution of 320×

240.