Patent ID: 8254023

Claim:
An optical projection tomography system for imaging an object of interest, the optical projection tomography system comprising: an illumination source; a carrier for holding the object of interest, a portion of which is located within the region illuminated by the light source, wherein the object of interest has at least one feature of interest located within the carrier; a microscope objective lens located to receive light passing through the carrier, the microscope objective lens located on an optical path; a variable power element located along the optical path, wherein the variable power element includes: a beam splitter, a scan lens, a scan mirror having a reflective surface for receiving light transmitted through the scan lens, where the microscope objective lens, the beam splitter, the scan lens, and the scan mirror are aligned along the optical path, and a driver coupled to oscillate the scan mirror along the optical path such that the reflecting surface remains perpendicular to the optical path whereby the oscillating scan mirror scans through a plurality of focal planes in the carrier; a second lens for receiving and transmitting light emitted from the variable power element; and a light sensor located to receive light transmitted from the second lens element.