Patent ID: 7471450

Claim:
A confocal reflectance microscope system comprising: a coherent light source operative to transmit a light beam on an optical path to a target; a detection assembly operative to receive a reflected signal from the target, the detection assembly including an aperture and a detector; and an optical assembly on the optical path operative to focus the light beam from the light source on a focal region of the target and to direct the reflected signal to the detection assembly; the focal region and the aperture of the detection assembly lying in conjugate focal planes, the aperture of the detection assembly sized to pass light scattered from the focal region to the detector and reject light scattered from outside the focal region of the target; a scanner assembly comprising a pair of prisms rotatably mounted on the optical path, the prisms including two surfaces facing each other and normal to an incident light beam axis, each prism configured to deviate the light beam by a desired angle, and a rotation mechanism operative to rotate each prism at a selected speed of rotation and in a selected direction to scan the light beam over the target and to return the reflected signal to the detection assembly; and a controller in communication with the light source, the scanner assembly, and the detection assembly, the controller operative to determine an angular position of each prism and to determine an intensity value of the reflected signal at the detection assembly, and to display a two-dimensional image of successive reflected signals from the target.