Patent ID: 7088487

Claim:
A modifiable array of microscopic pinholes for filtering a light beam in a confocal microscope, comprising: a fixed plate ( 310 ) carrying a first array of pinholes; a movable plate ( 300 ) carrying a second array of pinholes, each hole of the modifiable array being formed by the superimposition of a pinhole ( 311 ) of the fixed plate and a pinhole ( 301 ) of the movable plate, means to move the movable plate with respect to the fixed plate, from a first position in which each pinhole of the fixed plate is superimposed on a corresponding pinhole of the movable plate, to a second position in which each pinhole of the fixed plate is superimposed on a corresponding pinhole of the movable plate; wherein: the pinholes ( 301 ) of the movable plate that are superimposed on the pinholes ( 311 ) of the fixed plate in the first position differ from the pinholes ( 302 ) of the movable plate that are superimposed on the pinholes ( 311 ) of the fixed plate in the second position; and the pinholes ( 301 ) of the movable plate that are superimposed on the pinholes ( 311 ) of the fixed plate in the first position have a different size than the pinholes ( 302 ) of the movable plate that are superimposed on the pinholes ( 311 ) of the fixed plate in the second position; whereby the size of the pinholes of the modifiable pinholes array when the movable plate is in the first position differs from the size of the pinholes of the modifiable pinholes array when the movable plate is in the second position.