Patent ID: 11860349
Assignee: UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A programmable multiple-point illuminator for an optical microscope, comprising:
a light source; and
a spatial light modulator to modulate a light beam from the light source,
the modulated light beam disposed to scan across a sample placed under an objective of the microscope,
the sample being provided with fluorophores,
the spatial light modulator comprising;
a first acousto-optic deflector; and
a second acousto-optic deflector,
the first acousto-optic deflector having a first modulation plane, and
the second acousto-optic deflector having a second modulation plane,
said two acousto-optic deflectors being arranged in cascade to provide respective deflection in different directions,
the spatial light modulator enabled to scan in two dimensions across the sample,
the spatial light modulator further comprising:
a telescope relay to conjugate the first modulation plane with the second modulation plane,
the illuminator also comprising:
an arbitrary waveform generator disposed to synthesize holograms and arranged to simultaneously inject a first such hologram into the first acousto-optic deflector and a second such hologram into the second acousto-optic deflector, for the spatial light modulator to modulate the light beam in response to said holograms said arbitrary waveform generator comprising a digital device capable of mathematically synthetizing a waveform, a memory bank configured to store said mathematically synthesized waveforms as driving signals and a digital-analog converter circuitry for producing the time-varying electric signal from said pre-computed driving signals stored in said memory bank in order to create any two-dimensional light pattern by means of series decomposition into separable functions through an appropriate mathematical algorithm.