Patent ID: 7297921

Claim:
A confocal microscope comprising: a light source generating a light to irradiate to a specimen; a photodetection unit amplifying and detecting an optical signal reflected from the specimen through a pinhole; a first amplification unit amplifying an output signal from the photodetection unit at a predetermined amplification rate; an offset unit giving an offset to an output signal from the photodetection unit; a second amplification unit amplifying an output signal from the photodetection unit to which an offset is given at an amplification rate that is smaller than the predetermined amplification rate of the first amplification unit; a rectification unit for passing and rectifying only one side signal of positive and negative signals of the output signal from the second amplification unit; an addition/subtraction unit calculating the output signal from the first amplification unit and the output signal from the rectification unit; an image input circuit receiving an output signal from the addition/subtraction unit and forming an image from the received output signal; and a display unit displaying the image formed in the image input circuit.