JP2589105Y2 - microscope - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a microscope, and more particularly to a microscope provided with a fine focusing device having a narrower focusing range than the adjustment range of the coarse focusing device. The present invention relates to a microscope in which a microscope is initialized and a sample placed on a stage can be observed smoothly.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are the following two types of focusing devices used in this type of microscope, irrespective of manual operation and electric operation. The first type of focusing device switches between coarse movement and fine movement by switching the driving resolution of a driving member that drives a set of focusing members including a rack and a pinion, for example, by changing a gear ratio. Switching. Since the focusing device of the first type drives the same focusing member, the range in which focusing can be adjusted during fine movement is as wide as that during coarse movement.

A focusing device of the second type has a focusing member and a driving member for coarse movement and fine movement respectively. The coarse movement focusing member is large, and the coarse movement driving member has low driving resolution. Also, the fine movement focusing member is small, and the fine movement driving member has high driving resolution. Therefore, a simple configuration could be realized at a low cost. A microscope using such a second type of focusing device uses a coarse focusing device to focus from a relatively large range to a relatively small range of a fine focusing device. Switching from the coarse focusing device to the fine focusing device, the focus is strictly adjusted using the fine focusing device.

Incidentally, an electric revolver used in a microscope switches an objective lens only when switching of an objective lens is instructed.

[0005]

However, the conventional microscope using such a focusing device has the following disadvantages. The first type of focusing device requires a switching mechanism for switching between coarse movement and fine movement.
There is a problem that the configuration becomes complicated and a large accommodation space is required at a place where the focusing device is arranged.

In the second type of focusing device, since the adjustment range of the fine focusing device is short, it is necessary to focus while switching between coarse movement and fine movement. When a sample is observed with a microscope, usually, first, a portion to be particularly observed on the sample is searched using a low-magnification objective lens, and observation is performed at a target magnification while gradually switching to a high-magnification objective lens. Therefore, the microscope using the conventional motorized revolver needs to scan the motorized revolver so as to select a low-magnification objective lens every time the sample is exchanged. In addition, a high-magnification objective lens generally has a short distance between the tip and the sample.
Therefore, when trying to replace a sample with the high-magnification objective lens attached, if the next sample is thicker than the observed sample, placing the sample on the stage collides the sample with the objective lens, The objective lens and the sample may be damaged.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and it is necessary to perform initialization for protecting an objective lens and a sample at the time of sample exchange, and for preparing for the next observation. It is to provide a microscope that can perform.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the microscope according to the present invention comprises an electric revolver and an electric revolver.
Observation optical system including multiple mounted objective lenses and sample
The stage on which the stage is placed, and the observation optical system and the stage
By moving, the focal plane of the objective lens and the sample
Coarse focusing device that moves relative position and coarse focusing device
Of the relative position between the observation optical system and the stage
The relative movement of the observation optical system and the stage in a narrow range
In a microscope equipped with a fine focusing device
Instruction means for outputting an instruction signal in accordance with the operation of
When a signal is input, multiple pairs mounted on the revolver
The objective lens with the longest working distance among the objective lenses
The electric revolver to place it on the optical path of
At the same time, adjust the fine focusing device
It has a control means for setting it at the center .

[0009]

According to the present invention, an instruction signal is output from the instruction means by an operator's operation at the time of sample exchange, and based on the instruction signal, the control means controls the low magnification with a relatively large distance from the sample. The objective lens is arranged on the observation optical path. Thus, the objective lens and the sample can be protected, and preparations for observing the next sample are automatically made. Further, the control means , based on the instruction signal,
The relative position between the observation optical system and the stage is set so as to be substantially at the center of the adjustment range of the fine focusing unit. This will reduce the possibility of exceeding the adjustment range the next time focusing is performed by using the coarse focusing device to move into the focusing range of the fine focusing device and then focusing by the fine focusing device. ,
Therefore, switching between coarse movement and fine movement is reduced.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A microscope according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the microscope has a stage 1 on which a sample 2 is placed. The stage 1 is fixed to a microscope main body (not shown), and an arm 3 is fixed to the main body, and the arm 3 is located above the stage 1. The arm 3 holds an optical system (not shown) for observing the sample 2 along the optical axis O, a lens barrel (not shown) for supporting the optical system, and the like. Also, the arm 3
A coarse focusing device 4 is provided. This coarse focusing device 4
Moves the reflection lighting unit 5 up and down. The reflection illumination unit 5 is a unit of an optical system that illuminates the sample 2, and a light beam from a light source (not shown) travels along the optical axis S, and passes through the half mirror 51 and the objective lens 81 through the sample mirror. Illuminate 2. The unit 5 is provided with a fine focusing device 6, which moves the electric revolver 7 connected to the lower end thereof up and down. This electric revolver 7
Has a plurality of objective lenses 81, 82 (actually, five as shown in FIG. 2) mounted on a revolver 71, and a motor 72,
The gear mechanism 73 rotates the revolver 71.

Next, the electrical connection of the electric revolver 7 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the electric revolver 7
The objective lenses 81 to 85 are mounted. The electric revolver 7 has an address detection circuit 74, which detects the address of the objective lens located at a position coinciding with the optical axis O, and outputs an address signal to the CPU 9. Further, the CPU 9 outputs a drive signal to the drive circuit 75, and the drive circuit 75 drives the motor 72 based on the drive signal. Thereby, the objective lens mounted at an arbitrary address can be arranged at a position coinciding with the optical axis O. Also, C
A storage device 10, a command switch 11, and an objective lens information input device 12 are connected to the PU 9. The objective lens information input device 12 is used to input information on the objective lens. For example, information specific to the objective lens, such as a magnification and a numerical aperture, and information about which objective lens is attached to which address hole of the revolver 71 are attached. Is input. The storage device 10 stores the input information and the address in such a manner that they match each other, and outputs information on the objective lens at an arbitrary address according to an instruction from the CPU 9.

The focusing device comprises a coarse focusing device 4 and a fine focusing device 6. As shown in FIG. 1, the coarse focusing device 4 includes a motor 41 fixed to the arm 3, a pinion 42 rotated by rotation of the motor, and a rack 43 driven by rotation of the pinion 42. This rack 43
Are fixed to the reflection lighting unit 5. Therefore, the coarse focusing device 4 focuses by moving the reflection illumination unit 5, the fine focusing device 6, and the electric revolver 7 up and down. The motor 41 is driven by a drive circuit 44 as shown in FIG.

Further, the fine focusing device 6 has a motor 61 fixed to the reflection illumination unit 5, a pinion 62 rotated by the motor 61, and a rack 63 driven by the pinion 62. The rack 63 is fixed to the electric revolver 7, so that the fine focusing device 6 focuses within the adjustment range 6a by moving the electric revolver 7 up and down.

A guide mechanism (not shown) supports the arm 3 and the reflection illumination unit 5 and the reflection illumination unit 5 and the electric revolver 7 so as to be relatively movable. Note that the guide mechanism is configured by disposing a guide member between a lens barrel holding the optical system and a cylinder into which the lens barrel is fitted. In this microscope, the optical axis O does not shift due to the weight of the components such as the electric revolver due to such a guide mechanism. Further, the guide mechanism also prevents extraneous light from outside from obstructing observation.

The thick lines 4a and 6a shown in FIG. 1 indicate the adjustment ranges of the respective focusing devices, and the black points 4b and 6b indicate the current positions within the ranges. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the fine focusing device 6 has a sensor 1 for detecting where the current position 6b is located within the adjustment range 6a.
The sensor 14 includes a sensor 14a for detecting the upper limit, a sensor 14b for detecting the center, and a sensor 14 for detecting the lower limit.
c.

The electrical connection of such a focusing device will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the coarse moving focusing device 4 and the fine moving focusing device 6 are provided with drive circuits 44 and 64 for driving motors 41 and 61, respectively. Drive circuits 44 and 6
4 is connected to the CPU 9, and the command switch 11 and the up / down switch 13 are connected to the CPU 9. CP
U9 outputs a drive signal to the drive circuits 44 and 64 in response to the operation of the command switch 11 or the up / down switch.

Next, the operation of the characteristic portion of the microscope will be described. That is, the case where the command switch 11 is operated to initialize the microscope when the sample is replaced by the microscope will be described. In this microscope, it is necessary to input in advance what kind of objective lens is mounted in which hole of the revolver at an initial setting. This input is performed using the objective lens information input device 12. The input objective lens information is stored in the storage device 10.

In the microscope, after the initial setting described above, when the sample 2 is placed on the stage 1 and the command switch 11 is operated to observe the sample 2, the following two operations are performed.
First, as an operation (a), the electric revolver 7
By rotating 1, the objective lens having the longest working distance is arranged so as to coincide with the optical axis O (the state of FIG. 1). At the same time, as the operation (b), the fine focusing device 6
Drives the motor 61 so as to control the position between the stage 1 and the objective lens so that the current position 6b is located substantially at the center of the focusing range 6a (the state of FIG. 1).

These controls are performed based on the flowchart shown in FIG. The time when the command switch 11 is operated is defined as step S0. The operation (a) is, first,
The address of the hole for mounting the objective lens located on the optical axis O is read (step S1). The CPU 9 stores the information of the objective lens attached to the hole of the read address in the storage device 10.
Output. Further, separately from the storage device 10, data (information) of the objective lens having a long working distance is actually stored.
Is also output. The CPU 9 compares the read information of the objective lens at the address with the data of the objective lens with the long working distance, and checks whether the read objective lens is the data of the objective lens with the longest working distance. (Step S2). The working distance refers to the distance between the tip of the objective lens and the surface of the sample. Therefore, the long working distance means that when exchanging the sample, the interval between them is wide, and the objective lens and the sample are unlikely to collide with each other.

In step S2, when the working distance does not match the data of the longest objective lens, for example, when the objective lens 82 in FIG. The drive circuit 75 is instructed to match the optical axis O with the hole at the address where the long objective lens is mounted (step S3). The drive circuit 75 drives the motor 72 to rotate the revolver 71 by a predetermined amount according to the instruction. If it is determined in step S2 that the data of the objective lens has the longest working distance, it is not necessary to drive the revolver, so that step S3 is passed.

As described above, in the operation (a), when the command switch 11 is operated, the objective lens having the longest working distance coincides with the optical axis O. In operation (b), first, the CPU
9 instructs the drive circuit 64 to raise the current position 6b within the adjustment range 6a of the fine focusing device 6 (step S11). The drive circuit 64 drives the motor 61 based on this instruction, and raises the electric revolver 7. Next, the sensor 14a detects whether the current position 6b has risen to the upper limit position (step S12). That is, step S11 is continued until it is detected in step S12 that the current position 6b has risen to the upper limit position.

Further, it instructs the drive circuit 64 to lower the current position 6b (step S13).
Further, the sensor 14b detects whether the current position 6b has been lowered to the center position (Step S14). That is, until the current position 6b is detected by the sensor 14b, step S
Continue with 13. As described above, in the operation (b), when the command switch 11 is operated, the current position 6b is positioned substantially at the center (location of the sensor 14b) within the adjustment range 6a of the fine focusing device.

Further, in addition to the above operations, the microscope is designed to simplify the operation of the microscope after exchanging the sample as described below. First, this microscope is used in this step S
After the end of 14, the focusing device operated by the up / down switch 13 is switched to the coarse focusing device. After operating the command switch 11, the operator of the microscope performs steps 1 to
When Step 14 is executed or completed, the sample is exchanged. When all Steps 1 to 14 are completed, the up / down switch 13 is operated for focusing for observation. At this time, since the up / down switch 13 has been switched to the operation switch of the coarse focusing device 4, the focusing by the coarse focusing device 4 is adjusted at least within the adjustment range of the fine focusing device. Next, the operator operates the command switch 11
Is pressed again, the focusing device driven by the up / down switch 13 is switched to the fine focusing device 6, and the apparatus stands by. If you were not able to focus precisely with the coarse focusing device
The sample is observed after strict focusing by the fine focusing device 6 switched by operating the up / down switch 13. In addition to the strict focusing, the fine focusing device 6 changes the focusing when the stage is moved in the two-dimensional direction due to irregularities on the surface of the sample or switches the objective lens. Sometimes used to refocus when the focus changes due to the difference in the focal length of the objective lens.

As described above, in the microscope of the embodiment, by operating the command switch 11, the objective lens having a long working distance is automatically replaced, and the current position 6b of the fine focusing device 6 is
Initially, the microscope is initialized by controlling it so that it is located at the upper limit position of the adjustment range 6a (the position of the sensor 14a) and finally at the approximate center of the adjustment easiness (the position of the sensor 14b).

This initialization has the following effects. First, in order to increase the working distance of the objective lens, the distance between the surface of the sample and the objective lens increases by the difference in working distance, so even if the thickness of the sample changes before and after replacement. It is less likely that the objective lens and the sample are in contact with each other and some of them are destroyed, and the sample exchange operation itself can be easily performed before that. Similarly, by raising the current position of the fine focusing device 6 to the upper limit of the adjustment range, the space between the sample and the objective lens is widened and the sample can be easily exchanged.

Also, by automatically changing to an objective lens having a long working distance (since an objective lens having a long working distance is generally a low-magnification objective lens), the objective lens is replaced with a low-magnification lens after the sample is exchanged. It can be observed without switching. Similarly, the fine focusing device 6 positions its current position 6b at substantially the center of the adjustment range 6a.
Focusing when observing the next sample is simplified.

That is, in general, in a microscope using such a coarse focusing device and a fine focusing device having different adjustment ranges,
After exchanging the sample, focus easily within the adjustment range of the fine focusing device with the coarse focusing device, then switch from the coarse focusing device to the fine focusing device, and strictly adjust the fine focusing device. Is focused on. However, as shown in FIG. 1, the position at which the focus has been set to observe the sample 20 (indicated by the dotted line) which has been observed up to now is 4 in the coarse focusing device.
b. Considering the case where the fine focusing device is at the current position 6c indicated by a white circle, when the next sample to be observed is the sample 2 thinner than the sample 20, the thickness of the sample is simply considered. It is necessary to lower the current position of the focusing device by the difference. Therefore, when the coarse position focusing device 4 is operated to lower the current position 4b, but it is still necessary to lower the current position 4b, even if the fine focus device 6 is operated, the adjustment range 6a is immediately protruded. Therefore, it is necessary to perform the adjustment by switching to the coarse focusing device. However, since this microscope controls the fine focus range up and down so that the current position 6b is located at the position where it is most easily moved, it is possible to focus without operating the coarse focus device again. it can.
Such a case is very effective, even when observing the same sample, since focusing may occur only by changing the objective lens with a different magnification.

In the case of a configuration in which the driven member is suspended from above as in the embodiment, if vibration is generated in the suspended member, the vibration is difficult to stop and, therefore, a high magnification is required. It has a drawback that an image is easily blurred when observation is performed using an objective lens. However, as in the embodiment, the members driven by the coarse focusing device and the fine focusing device are different members, and the fine focusing device is used. Vibration can be suppressed by reducing the size of the members driven when focusing by the device. By the way, this effect cannot be realized in the first type focusing device described in the related art because the location of the focusing device is limited.

In this embodiment, the operator operates the up / down switch 1
3, the focus was adjusted. The focus detection device 15 was arranged on the optical axis O in FIG. 1, and this focus detection device 15 was connected to the CPU 9 as shown by a dotted line in FIG. Based on the signal from the detection device 15, the coarse focusing device 4 roughly adjusts the focus. When the focus is slightly deviated due to unevenness or warpage of the sample 2 or replacement with an objective lens having a different magnification, the fine focusing is performed. The device 6 may be focused. Also in this case, if the current position 6b of the fine focusing device 6 is set near the height of the adjustment range 6a, it is possible to focus only on the fine focusing device even for a sample having a large surface unevenness or warpage. .

Further, since the focal length of the objective lens falls within a general range depending on the performance (it is not absolute because there is a manufacturing error), the difference in the focal length due to the difference in the objective lens is used as one of the information of the objective lens. One is stored in the storage device 10 and when the command switch 11 is operated,
By driving and adjusting the coarse focusing device (or fine focusing device) by the difference of the focal length between the objective lens having a short working distance (for example, 82) and the objective lens having a long working distance (for example, 81), Preparation becomes easier when observing the sample. This correction may be made not only when the command switch is operated, but also when the objective lens is replaced during normal observation.

In the embodiment, the coarse focusing device 4 and the fine focusing device 6 move the objective lens 81 (to the stage 1) with respect to the stage 1.
Although 85) is configured to move up and down, in the present invention, the stage 1 may be moved up and down with respect to the objective lens.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In response to an instruction signal from the instruction means, an objective lens having a long working distance is automatically selected and arranged so as to coincide with the optical axis, and the fine focusing device has its current position located substantially at the center of the adjustment range. Control reduces the likelihood of the objective lens colliding with the sample and causing damage when the sample is replaced, and simplifies preparations for observing the next sample. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a configuration of a main part of a microscope according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the electric revolver of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a focusing device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flowchart of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Stage 2 ... Sample 3 ... Arm 4 ... Coarse movement focusing device 4a ... Coarse movement focusing device adjustment range 4b ... Coarse movement focusing device current position 6 ... Fine movement focusing device 6a ... Fine movement focusing device adjustment Range 6b: Current position of fine focusing device 7: Electric revolver 11: Instruction means 72, 73, 75, 9 ... Revolver drive means 81, 82 ... Objective lenses 61, 64, 9 ... Preset means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-52-9455 (JP, A) JP-A-57-69421 (JP, A) JP-A-59-104616 (JP, A) JP-A 62-945 35313 (JP, A) JP-A-2-104349 (JP, A) JP-A-6-2324 (JP, U) JP-B-4-26082 (JP, B2) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G02B 21/00-21/36

Claims (2)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] And 1. A electric revolver, said an observation optical system including a plurality of objective lenses mounted on the electric revolver, a stage for mounting a sample, by relatively moving the said and the observation optical system stage With the focal plane of the objective lens
And Sodoase quasi device for moving the relative position of the sample, narrow compared to the adjustment range of the relative position by crude Doase quasi device
The observation optical system and the stage
A microscope equipped with a fine focusing device for moving, an instruction means for outputting an instruction signal in accordance with an external operation, and when the instruction signal is input, the instruction means is attached to the revolver.
Objective lens with the longest working distance among multiple objective lenses
The motor so that the lens is positioned on the optical path of the microscope.
While driving the revolver, the fine focusing device is
Control means for setting approximately at the center of the adjustment range of the fine focusing device
Microscope and having a. 2. The control means according to claim 1, further comprising:
Within the adjustment range of the fine focusing device, the observation optical system and the step
After setting the position relative to the page to the farthest position,
It should be set almost at the center of the adjustment range of the fine focusing device.
The microscope according to claim 1, wherein