Patent ID: 6259080
Filing Date: 2001-07-10
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
An autofocus device for a microscope which is mounted on a microscope including:a stage, on which a specimen to be observed is placed, and which is three-dimensionally movable;an image forming optical section, which is provided with a plurality of objectives respectively having different magnifying powers in an interchangeable manner, and which forms an image with beams with which the specimen are irradiated through an selected objective;a focusing section for effecting focusing of the objective, including movement, upward and downward, on the formed optical image;an image pick-up section for shooting an in-focus optical image which is brought to be in focus by the focusing section;an image display section for displaying a shot optical image by the image pick-up section;an image splitting section for splitting the entire image of the specimen into an arbitrary number of small areal images; andan image processing section for integrating the small areal images obtained by the splitting and reconstructing the entire image of the specimen, the autofocus device comprising:an in-focus position storage section for storing an in-focus position as three-dimensional data of the specimen which is brought to be in-focus for the first time composed of a position of a stage along the optical axis of the selected objective and a position of the optical axis in a plane of the stage which is perpendicular to the optical axis; anda focusing control section for moving the stage, reading an in-focus position which is stored in the in-focus position storage section, if an in-focus position cannot be obtained when focusing is performed on the small areal images by the focusing section in image shooting by the image pick-up section.