Arrangement and method for focus monitoring in a microscope with digital image generation, preferably in a confocal microscope

• Main Author: Schoeppe, Guenter
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 24.04.2003

Arrangement and method for focus monitoring in a microscope with digital image generation, preferably in a confocal microscope. The arrangement provides an additional, rotatably supported transparent optical component in the known construction of a microscope in front of a main beam splitter arranged in the beam path in the area of a parallel illumination beam path. According to the method, the images required for focus monitoring are recorded with a transparent optical component inclined by angle + or − . The images are checked for correlation of the image contents in the direction of beam displacement by pixel-by-pixel displacement. The determined displacement s at optimum correlation represents a measurement of the instantaneous focusing or defocusing. The suggested solution for focus monitoring is applicable with slight adaptations for all microscopes outfitted with digital image-generating methods and arrangements. In confocal microscopes, applicability to defocusing is limited in a range of about 5 to 8× /NA 2 .