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: 06.04.2004

This application claims priority of German Application No. 101 45 056.7, filed Sep. 13, 2001, the complete disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 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.