Patent ID: 7598502

Claim:
A confocal laser scanning microscope that includes a first scanning optical system for the purpose of emitting an observation beam to scan and observe a sample, and a second scanning optical system for the purpose of emitting an excitation beam to scan and optically excite a part of said sample said confocal laser scanning microscope further comprising: an objective lens; a micromirror device, which includes a linear away of micromirrors, said observation beam and said excitation beam being incident from different directions, said micromirrors being controllable so as to form said observation beam and said excitation beam into a sub-beam pattern and to reflect the sub-beam pattern, said micromirrors located at a position that is conjugate to a focal plane of said objective lens; a first anamorphic lens in said first scanning optical system that condenses said observation beam from said first scanning optical system onto said micromirror device; and a second anamorphic lens in said second scanning optical system that condenses said excitation beam from said second scanning optical system onto said micromirror device; a one-dimensionally-scanning galvanometer mirror, that is positioned on the same side of said micromirror device as said sample and which reflects said observation beam that has been emitted from said first scanning optical system and reflected by said micromirror device and which reflects said excitation beam that has been emitted from said second scanning optical system and reflected by said micromirror device; wherein the combination of said micromirror device and said one-dimensionally-scanning galvanometer mirror simultaneously reflects each of said observation beam and said excitation beam to multiple points on said sample two-dimensionally.