Patent ID: 7190514

Claim:
A confocal scanning microscope comprising: a light source unit for emitting excitation light that excites a sample; a scanner unit for scanning said sample with said excitation light; and an imaging camera for capturing an image of said sample by receiving fluorescent light emitted from said sample; said light source unit having a plurality of light sources for emitting laser light with different wavelengths and a multicore optical fiber cable for transmitting light from said plurality of light sources, one end of said multicore optical fiber cable being separated into a plurality of optical fibers, and light from each of said plurality of light sources being input to one end of each of said separated optical fibers; wherein said scanner unit comprises; a collimating lens for changing excitation light to parallel light; a microlens array disk at which light from said collimating lens is irradiated; a pinhole disk for light condensed by said microlens array disk to pass through; and an objective lens to which light from said pinhole disk is input; wherein at the output end of said multicore optical fiber cable, a plurality of cores are arranged in proximity to one another to the extent whereby, images, which are produced when light obtained as light emitted from said plurality of light sources passes through said scanner unit and reflects at said sample is photographed with said imaging camera, do not adversely affect image observation; and wherein said plurality of cores are arranged with respect to one another such that after said light obtained as light emitted from said plurality of light sources passes through the pinhole disk, the optical axis displacement between the plurality of emitted lights is approximately 7 μm or less.