JP2010134192A - Tilt stage, and microscope with the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tilt stage having higher performance, and a microscope with the same. <P>SOLUTION: The tilt stage has a tilt section 19 that has a stage plate 21 where a sample is mounted and a cup 23 which protrudes in an arc shape to a reverse face of the stage plate, and a fixing section 17 that has a receiving seat 25 which abuts on the cup 23, and, by rotating the cup 23 with respect to the receiving seat 25 while sliding the cup, an upper face of the stage plate 21 of the tilt section 19 is tilted from a horizontal state, a tilt angle is maintained by friction between the receiving seat 25 and the cup 23, a rotation center O is on the upper face of the stage plate 21 or above the stage plate in the horizontal state, and a gravity center G of the tilt section 19 is near the rotation center O for maintaining the tilt angle. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a tilt stage and a microscope having the tilt stage.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an inclined stage for observing a sample with a microscope or the like, there is a configuration having a degree of freedom of rotation by combining hemispherical irregularities as in Patent Document 1.

In the configuration having a hemispherical concavo-convex surface as in Patent Document 1, basically, the inclination angle is changed by sliding between the concavo-convex surfaces. Since the spherical surface is only in contact with the receiving portion, there is no limitation on the tilt direction seen from the upper surface, and the tilt can be quickly made in the desired direction. In this configuration, the inclination angle increases the frictional force by giving the spherical surface roughness, and maintains the inclination state.
JP 2007-57519 A

  However, increasing the roughness of the sliding surface increases the movement during sliding. Further, it is conceivable that the sliding surfaces are in a state where they are scraped together like polishing and cannot withstand long-term use.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the tilt stage of the present invention is a stationary plate having a stage plate on which a specimen is placed, a tilted portion having a convex portion projecting in an arc shape on the back surface thereof, and a seat abutting on the convex portion. And the upper surface of the stage plate provided in the inclined portion is inclined from a horizontal state by rotating the convex portion with respect to the receiving seat, and the receiving seat and the protruding portion. The tilt angle is maintained by the friction of, and the center of rotation is above the upper surface of the stage plate or the upper surface in the horizontal state, and the center of gravity of the inclined portion is in the vicinity of the rotation center in order to maintain the tilt angle. It is characterized by being.

  The microscope of the present invention is characterized by having the tilt stage.

  According to the present invention, a higher-performance tilt stage and a microscope having the same can be provided.

  Hereinafter, a tilt stage and a microscope having the tilt stage according to an embodiment of the present application will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a view showing a microscope provided with an inclined stage according to an embodiment of the present application, in which (a) is a front view and (b) is a side view.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the tilt stage according to the embodiment of the present application.

  FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a tilted state of the tilting stage according to the embodiment of the present application.

  FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a tilt stage corresponding to the numerical example.

  First, the microscope 1 provided with the inclination stage 3 of embodiment of this application is demonstrated.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a microscope (stereomicroscope) 1 includes a base 5, a support column 7, an arm 9, an objective lens 11 attached to the arm 9, and a binocular tube 13. The arm 9 can be moved in the vertical direction (the optical axis direction of the objective lens 11) by operating a vertical movement handle 15 provided on the support column 7. An inclined stage 3 is attached to the base 5 for observing the specimen placed on the upper surface with an inclination.

  Next, the tilt stage 3 of the embodiment of the present application will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the tilt stage 3 includes a fixed portion 17 and a tilted portion 19 placed thereon. The inclined portion 19 includes a disc-shaped stage plate 21 on which the specimen is placed on the upper surface, and a substantially hemispherical cup (convex portion) 23 provided on the back surface of the stage plate 21 and protruding in an arc shape. The fixing portion 17 includes a cup receiver 27 having a receiving seat 25 which is a cone or a partial conical surface portion, and a block 29, and is fixed to the base 5.

  The cup 23 is a partial spherical surface centered on the point O, and this spherical surface is in contact with the seat 25. By rotating the cup 23 around the point O with respect to the receiving seat 25, the upper surface of the stage plate 21 on which the sample is placed is inclined from the horizontal state, and the receiving seat 25 and the cup 23 are moved. The tilt angle (tilt angle) is maintained by friction (see FIGS. 2 and 3). The inclined portion 19 can be inclined in all directions when the inclined stage 3 is viewed from above.

  In addition, the rotation center O is preferably in the horizontal state on the upper surface (specimen placement surface) of the stage plate 21 or above the upper surface (the space on the objective lens 11 side and above the specimen placement surface). This is to prevent the observation image plane from moving up and down when it is tilted and the depth of focus is not adjusted, and further, the microscopic part of the specimen is not deviated from the visual field. The material of the cup receiver 27 is preferably plastic or the like so that the inclined portion 19 moves smoothly.

  Hereinafter, the tilt stage 3 will be described as being rotationally symmetric with respect to the vertical line including the rotation center O when in the horizontal state, but is not particularly limited thereto. For example, the cup 23 has a substantially semi-cylindrical shape protruding downward in an arc shape, the receiving seat 25 has a groove shape having two inclined surfaces, and the cup receiver 27 has a rotational center O to incline the inclined portion 19 in an arbitrary direction. You may make it rotate around the vertical line containing.

  Next, a configuration for maintaining the tilt angle of the tilt stage 3 will be described.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, in the present embodiment, the center of gravity G of the inclined portion 19 is adjusted so as to maintain the inclination angle without applying an extra external force due to friction between the seat 25 and the cup 23. It comes to be near the rotation center O. In this way, since the torque due to gravity acting on the inclined portion 19 can be reduced in the inclined state, the inclination angle can be easily maintained.

  Hereinafter, this will be described in more detail with reference to the cross-sectional view of FIG. In FIG. 3, for convenience of explanation, the center of gravity G of the inclined portion 19 is slightly lowered. The mass of the inclined portion 19 is m, the gravitational acceleration is g, the distance from the rotation center O to the spherical surface of the substantially hemispherical cup 23 (that is, the radius of the complete spherical surface including the spherical surface of the cup 23) is R, and the inclination is from the rotation center O. The distance to the center of gravity G of the portion 19 is L, and the normal of the cone or partial conical surface of the seat 25 (the line segment from the contact point with the cup 23 toward the rotation center O as shown in FIG. 3) defines the rotation center O. An angle formed with a vertical line including A is A, and an inclination angle is θ.

In the tilted state, the center of gravity G deviates from the position on the vertical line including the rotation center O, so that a force to return to the horizontal state acts on the tilted portion 19. The torque Ta due to gravity to rotate the inclined portion 19 around the rotation center O is
(1) Ta = L × mg · sinθ
It is. Ta depends on the inclination angle θ and increases as the inclination increases. When the inclined portion 19 starts to slide with respect to the seat 25 at a tilt angle θ, the torque Tm that attempts to prevent rotation by the frictional force at that moment is μ, which is the friction coefficient between the seat 25 and the cup 23. If the drag is N,
(2) Tm = R × μN = Rμmg · cosA
It is. For example, when the stage plate 21 is designed to come into contact with a part of the cup receiver 27 and the block 29 at an inclination angle θ = 30 ° so that it can be inclined to θ = 30 °, θ is 0 °. In the inclined state from 30 ° to 30 °, if Ta ≦ Tm is always satisfied, the inclination is maintained.

If Tm-Ta is P,
(3) P = Tm−Ta = mg (Rμ · cos A−L · sin θ)
It becomes. If P ≧ 0, the tilt angle is maintained, but if P is large, a more stable tilt angle can be maintained.

  In order to increase P, there are the following methods. (Method 1) Decrease L, (Method 2) Increase R, (Method 3) Increase μ, (Method 4) Reduce A However, (Method 2) Increasing R increases the radius of the cup 23, and as a result, L also increases. Further, (Method 3) Increasing μ means that the surface becomes rough and the hand feeling becomes worse. (Method 4) When A is reduced, the contact position between the cup 23 and the seat 25 is narrowed and becomes closer to the bottom surface of the spherical surface, so that the stability of the inclined portion 19 is deteriorated. From the above, (Method 1) it is considered optimal to reduce L.

Solving the tilt holding condition P ≧ 0 for L, from equation (3),
(4) L ≦ μR ・ cosA / sinθ
Get. For example, when the tilt angle θ is designed to change from 0 ° to 30 ° due to the structure of the tilt stage 3 as described above, if L is small enough to satisfy Equation (4) in this range, the tilt portion 19 The inclined state is maintained by its own weight. In the present embodiment, in order to maintain a stable tilt angle, the distance L from the rotation center O to the center of gravity G of the inclined portion 19 is made as short as possible below μR · cos A / sin θ.

  In order to reduce the value of L, the center of gravity G should be close to the rotation center O. For example, the center of gravity G coincides with the rotation center O when the cup 23 is a sphere, but the cup 23 cannot be a sphere due to the configuration of the tilt stage 3. In order to bring the center of gravity G closer to the rotation center O, the weight of the stage plate 21 of the inclined portion 19 is increased and the weight of the cup 23 is decreased. The reason for this will be described next.

The center of gravity of the stage plate 21 is Gs, the weight of the stage plate 21 is Ms, the center of gravity of the cup 23 is Gc, the weight of the cup 23 is Mc, the distance between the center of gravity of the stage plate 21 and the cup 23 is x, and the center of gravity Gs of the stage plate 21 If the distance between the stage plate 21 and the combined center of gravity G of the cup 23 is Q,
(5) Q = x · Mc / (Ms + Mc)
It becomes. L is the distance from the rotation center O to the combined center of gravity G of the stage plate 21 and the cup 23 (the center of gravity G of the inclined portion 19) constituting the inclined portion 19,
(6) L = OG = OGs + Q
It becomes.

  For example, from Equation (5), when Ms = 250 g, Mc = 250 g, and x = 20 mm, Q = 20 × 250/500 = 10 mm. On the other hand, when Ms = 500 g, Mc = 100 g, and x = 20 mm, Q = 20 × 100/600 = 3.33. That is, if the weight of the stage plate 21 near the rotation center O is increased and the weight of the cup 23 far from the rotation center O is decreased, the center of gravity G of the inclined portion 19 can be brought closer to the rotation center O.

  In order to increase the weight of the stage plate 21 and reduce the weight of the cup 23, the specific gravity of the substance used for the material of the stage plate 21 may be set larger than the specific gravity of the substance used for the material of the cup 23. For example, the cup 23 may be made of aluminum or plastic having a low specific gravity, and the stage plate 21 may be made of stainless steel or brass having a high specific gravity. If the specific gravity of the material of the stage plate 21 and the cup 23 is extremely different, the effect is obtained, but in order to obtain a sufficient effect, the ratio is 2: 1, that is, the specific gravity of the material of the stage plate 21 is equal to the specific gravity of the material of the cup 23. It is preferable to make it 2 times or more.

  Further, not only using materials having different specific gravities, but also increasing the volume of the stage plate 21 and reducing the volume of the cup 23 can increase the difference in weight applied to each center of gravity. As a method of changing the volume, the inside of the cup 23 is pierced into a cavity, and the diameter of the disk-shaped stage plate 21 is increased with respect to the distance R from the rotation center O to the spherical surface of the cup 23 (formula (6) It is conceivable to increase the diameter without increasing the thickness in order to keep the OGs of) small. Specifically, the amount of penetration of the cup 23 is preferably at least half of the volume of the cup 23 before penetration. The radius of the stage plate 21 is preferably 2R or more.

  Next, numerical examples of the tilt stage 3 of this embodiment will be described.

The cup 23 is made of aluminum, and the stage plate 21 is made of brass. The specific gravity of aluminum is about 2.8, the specific gravity of brass is about 8.5, and the specific gravity ratio is about 3: 1. POM (polyacetal) is used for the cup receiver 27 having the receiving seat 25, the coefficient of friction μ between the POM receiving seat 25 and the aluminum cup 23 is 0.12, and the distance from the rotation center O to the spherical surface of the cup 23. It is assumed that R = 30 mm, the inclination angle θ = 30 °, and the angle A = 30 ° between the normal line of the cone or the partial conical surface of the seat 25 and the vertical line including the rotation center O. At this time, the condition for maintaining the tilt angle is (7) from Equation (4): L ≦ 0.12 × 30 × cos 30 ° / sin 30 ° = 6.3 mm
It becomes.

Here, as shown in FIG. 4, the inside of the cup 23 is rolled into a hollow with a size of about φ40 mm, and the volume of the cup 23 after drilling is about 36000 mm ³ before the drilling is performed. Is about 18000 mm ³ . Further, the diameter of the stage plate 21 is set to φ120 mm (= 4R). The rotation center O is located on the upper surface of the stage plate 21. When L is calculated from the volume and specific gravity using a three-dimensional soft model in this state, L = 5.4 mm. Since the condition of Expression (7) is satisfied, the tilt angle can be maintained.

  As described above, according to this embodiment, durability that enables smooth tilt adjustment and stable tilt angle maintenance without requiring a special mechanism and without increasing the frictional force by roughening the sliding surface. And a microscope having the tilt stage can be provided.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

It is a figure which shows the microscope provided with the inclination stage which concerns on embodiment of this application, (a) is a front view, (b) is a side view. It is sectional drawing which shows the inclination stage which concerns on embodiment of this application. It is sectional drawing which shows the inclination state of the inclination stage which concerns on embodiment of this application. It is sectional drawing which shows the inclination stage corresponding to a numerical example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Microscope 3 Inclination stage 17 Fixed part 19 Inclination part 21 Stage plate 23 Cup 25 Receptacle 27 Cup receiver O Center of rotation G Center of gravity

Claims (7)

A stage plate on which a specimen is placed, an inclined portion having a convex portion protruding in an arc shape on the back surface thereof, and a fixed portion having a seat abutting against the convex portion,
By rotating the convex portion while sliding the convex portion with respect to the seat, the upper surface of the stage plate provided in the inclined portion is tilted from a horizontal state, and the tilt angle is maintained by the friction between the seat and the convex portion. And
The tilt stage is characterized in that the center of rotation is above the upper surface of the stage plate or above the top surface in the horizontal state, and the center of gravity of the inclined portion is in the vicinity of the center of rotation in order to maintain the tilt angle. . The convex portion is substantially hemispherical,
The tilt stage according to claim 1, wherein the seat is a cone or a partial conical surface portion. The distance from the rotation center to the spherical surface of the substantially hemispherical convex portion is R, the distance from the rotation center to the center of gravity of the inclined portion is L, the friction coefficient between the seat and the convex portion is μ, The inclination according to claim 2, wherein the following condition is satisfied, where A is an angle formed by a normal line of a cone of a seat or a partial conical surface with a vertical line including the rotation center, and the inclination angle is θ. stage.
L ≦ μR ・ cosA / sinθ   4. The tilt stage according to claim 2, wherein a specific gravity of a substance used for the material of the stage plate is larger than a specific gravity of a substance used for the material of the convex portion.   The tilt stage according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein an inside of the convex portion is a cavity.   The stage plate is disc-shaped, and the radius of the stage plate is 2R or more, where R is a distance from the rotation center to the spherical surface of the substantially hemispherical convex portion. The tilt stage according to any one of 5 to 5.   A microscope having the tilt stage according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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