Patent ID: 6248995
Filing Date: 2001-06-19
Classification: G01B,G02B

Abstract:
In a confocal microscopic equipment that obtains optical confocal images by rotating a disk having a plurality of apertures and by scanning a sample by focusing light beams that pass through said apertures on said sample, said equipment comprising:a light source;an optical microscope;a high speed camera to photograph said optical confocal images; anda high speed confocal scanner that scans said sample with output beams from said light source via said optical microscope and that outputs return light beams from said sample to be photographed by said high speed camera; the improvement comprising:said high speed confocal scanner comprising:a first planar disk having a plurality of micro-lens focusing means to which an incident beam is applied;a second planar disk having a corresponding plurality of apertures of the same pattern as said micro-lens focusing means and disposed to be parallel to said first planar disk so that a corresponding micro-lens focusing means focus light on a corresponding aperture;a beam splitter positioned between the parallel positioned said first planar disk and said second planar disk that transmits light beams transmitted through said first planar disk micro-lens focusing means and reflects return light beams from said apertures of said second planar disk;a lens that focuses and outputs reflected light beams from said beam splitter; anddriving means that rotates said first planar disk and said second planar disk synchronously with each other so that corresponding micro-lens focusing means and apertures are synchronously rotated together; anda memory that stores as actual optical frame data a plurality of optical confocal images photographed with said high speed camera on a real time basis; and wherein said high speed camera operates at a rate higher than 30 frames per second.