Patent ID: 8014053

Claim:
Pinhole disk that can be used as a filter disk in transmitted light mode, particularly in confocal microscopes, and consists of an optically transparent material, having an inner hole with a fixed outside radius r max and inside radius r min , whereby the optically transparent material is provided with a non-transparent layer at least in a large region, and this region is provided with a pattern of transparent pinholes, wherein the arrangement of these pinholes is generated according to the following rule: a. The disk is divided into n circular rings of equal thickness, having the radii r 1 , r 2 . . . , r n , with a constant radial distance Δr, b. a straight line that proceeds from the disk origin intersects all the circular rings at the angle α 0 , c. the first pinholes are placed at every intersection of the concentric circles with the straight line, d. the angle of the next pinholes for each circle is calculated from the sum of the last angle and a summand dα(r i ) typical for the circle radius, where the angle dα(r i )=D 2 /(Δr×r i ) is calculated in radians, causing all the angle positions of the pinholes to be calculated according to the formula α(r i , j)=α 0 +j×dα(r i ), and only angles between 0 and 2 π being taken into consideration, where the following applies: i=number of radii, D=distance between two pinholes on the same radius, j=number of pinholes on a circular ring.