Patent ID: 8390926

Claim:
An optical apparatus for creating an image of an object comprising non-transparent material, the apparatus comprising: a. an illuminating light source producing an illuminating light having a controlled angular spectrum; b. an infinity corrected objective directing the illuminating light on the object and collecting light from the object; c. an illumination optical path delivering the illuminating light from the illuminating light source to the infinity-corrected objective; d. a relay optics disposed within the illumination optical path for introducing a predetermined tilt angle for rays of the illuminating light entering the infinity corrected objective; e. an image sensor for creating the image of the object; and f. an imaging optical path for delivering the collected light from the infinity-corrected objective to the image sensor, wherein the illuminating light source, the infinity corrected objective and the relay optics are arranged to at least partially prevent stray light rays, rays, scattered by the surface or interface of the non-transparent material and light rays, perturbed by inhomogeneities of the non-transparent material, from entering the imaging optical path.