JP3019754B2 - Nipkow disk type optical scanner - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a Nipkow disk type optical scanner used in a confocal microscope, and more particularly to an improvement for synchronizing a scan cycle of an optical scanner with an image pickup cycle of an image pickup apparatus. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A confocal microscope using a Nipkow disk type optical scanner has been well known. As a confocal microscope of this type equipped with an imaging device, for example, there is a microscope described in Japanese Patent Application No. 63-503229 “scanning confocal optical microscope”. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the main part. In the figure, incident light 1 from a light source (not shown) is polarized by a polarizer 2, and the polarized light passes through a beam splitter 3 and enters a Nipkow disk 4.

[0003] The Nipkow disk 4 is provided with a large number of pinholes and is rotated by a motor 5. Here, the portion composed of the Nipkow disk 4 and the motor 5 corresponds to a Nipkow disk type optical scanner device. The incident light is diffracted by the pinhole, and the diffracted light passes through the quarter-wave plate 6 to become circularly polarized light, is focused on the objective lens 7, and is irradiated on the sample 8. The light reflected by the sample 8 is focused again by the objective lens 7 and
(Here, it changes from circularly polarized light to linearly polarized light), and then forms an image on the same pinhole.

The light that has passed through the pinhole is deflected by the beam splitter 3 at right angles to the analyzer 9. The image of the sample surface can be observed by viewing the incident light with an imaging device (for example, a television camera) 11 via a relay lens 10 focused on a pinhole.

[0005]

However, the conventional Nipkow disk type optical scanner used in such a confocal microscope does not have a mechanism for synchronizing with an imaging device. Therefore, the CCD (Charge Coupled D)
evice) When imaging is performed by an imaging device that repeats imaging at a fixed period, such as a camera, if there is a difference between the scanning period of the optical scanner device and the imaging period of the imaging device, the difference causes scanning unevenness. There is a drawback that bright and dark stripes appear on the imaging screen.

In view of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to eliminate scan unevenness by synchronizing a scan cycle of a Nipkow disk type optical scanner used in a confocal microscope with an image pickup cycle of an image pickup apparatus. An object of the present invention is to provide a Nipkow disk type optical scanning device capable of obtaining an imaged screen without light and dark stripes.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided an optical scanner having a Nipkow disk, which is used in a confocal microscope constructed so that an image of a sample can be observed by an imaging device. A Nipkow disc-type optical scanner device, comprising: a scan start point detection pinhole corresponding to a start point of a scan track provided on a Nipkow disc; and photoelectrically converting transmitted light of the scan start point detection pinhole. It is characterized in that a means for generating a trigger signal is provided so that the scan cycle and the imaging cycle of the imaging apparatus can be synchronized.

[0008]

The present invention provides a scan start point detection pinhole corresponding to the start point of a scan track on a Nipkow disk. The light that has passed through the scan start point detection pinhole is detected and used as a trigger signal for the imaging device. This makes it possible to synchronize the scan cycle with the imaging cycle of the imaging device.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a Nipkow disk type optical scanning device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a top view of the Nipkow disk. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 20 denotes a Nipkow disk. As shown in FIG. 2, a scan track 20 ₁ (hatched portion) composed of a large number of pinholes for scanning a sample, as in the conventional Nipkow disk, and an arbitrary outside thereof. A scan start point detection pinhole 20 ₂ arranged on the circumference corresponding to the scan start point (the scan start point is 4
The case where there is a part is shown as an example).

[0010] 21 is a photodiode serving as a light detector, is arranged at a position capable of receiving the light transmitted through the scanning start point detection pinhole 20 _2. Reference numeral 22 denotes a current-voltage conversion circuit, which converts a current generated by the photodiode 21 into a voltage. Reference numeral 23 denotes a voltage comparison circuit which compares the signal from the current-voltage conversion circuit 22 with a reference voltage 24, binarizes the magnitude of the signal voltage, and outputs it. Reference numeral 25 denotes an externally connected imaging device, which receives an output of the voltage comparison circuit 23 as an imaging synchronization signal (trigger signal). In FIG. 1, the light irradiation on the sample, the path of the reflected light from the sample, and the like are omitted for simplicity.

The operation in such a configuration will now be described. The surface of the Nipkow disk 20 is irradiated with the incident light 1.
The diameter of the beam cross section of the incident light 1 is
Is set to ₁ and the scan start detection pinhole 20 ₂ can both irradiation. By rotating the Nipkow disc 20, the incident light transmitted through the scanning track 20 ₁ to multipoint scanning a sample (not shown). On the other hand, incident light transmitted through the scanning start point detection pinhole 20 _2, scanning start point detection pinhole 20 ₂ is received by the photodiode 21 in each pass through the top of the photodiode 21.

At this time, since the output current from the photodiode 21 changes in a pulse shape, the change in current is converted into a voltage by the current-voltage conversion circuit 22, and then a voltage comparison circuit using a predetermined reference voltage as a threshold value is used. By inputting to 23, a voltage pulse train having the same cycle as the scan cycle can be extracted as an output. This pulse train is given as a trigger signal to the external imaging device 25, so that the optical scanner device and the imaging device 25 can be synchronized.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. The difference from FIG. 1 is that a microlens array disk 30 and a deflecting beam splitter 40 are added to the optical scanner portion (the portion of the Nipkow disk 20). Microlens array disk 30 has a microlens array of pinholes the same pattern as the Nipkow disk 20 (scan tracks 30 ₁ and scan start point detecting microlens 30 _2), the Nipkow disk 20
Are attached in parallel with a predetermined interval.
FIG. 2 is a top view of the disk, FIG. 2A is a top view of a microlens array disk, and FIG. 2B is a top view of a Nipkow disk.

The microlens array disk 30 is arranged on the light source side of the Nipkow disk 20, and the relative positions of the disks are strictly adjusted so that the condensed light of each microlens enters the corresponding pinhole. By adding the microlens array disk 30 in this way, the coupling efficiency of light incident on the pinhole of the Nipkow disk 20 is improved. The deflection beam splitter 40 transmits the incident light 1 and reflects return light (also referred to as signal light) from a sample (not shown). In this case, a dichroic mirror can be used instead of the deflection beam splitter. The light reflected by the polarization beam splitter 40 is guided to the imaging device, but is not shown here for the sake of simplicity.

The operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 3 will now be described. The incident light 1 is applied to the surface of the microlens array disk 30. The diameter of the cross-section of the beam of incident light 1 is set to allow both irradiating the scan tracks 30 ₁ and scan start point detecting microlens 30 _2. Light incident on each microlens is focused on a corresponding pinhole on the Nipkow disc 20. Accordingly, by synchronously rotating the microlens array disk 30 and the Nipkow disk 20, it is possible to multipoint scanning a sample (not shown) in the light transmitted through the scanning track 20 ₁ of the Nipkow disk 20.

On the other hand, the scan start point detection pinhole 20
_The incident light transmitted through ₂ is received by the photodiode 21 each time the scan start point detection pinhole 202 passes over the photodiode 21. The subsequent signal processing is the same as in FIG. 1 and the description is omitted here. However, as in the case of FIG. 1, the optical scanner device and the external imaging device 25 are used.
Can be synchronized with

It is to be noted that the above description of the present invention has been presented by way of illustration and example only, and of particular preferred embodiments. Thus, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be modified or modified in many ways without departing from its essentials.

[0018] For example, the shape of the scanning start point detection pinhole 20 ₂ of the Nipkow disk 20 in the arrangement of Figure 3 is not limited to a circular shape, it may be a cross marker shape.
With such a shape, the position adjustment work of the microlens array disk 30 and the Nipkow disk 20 becomes easy. Further, the position of the scan start point detection pinhole (and the scan start point detection microlens) is not limited to the outer periphery of the disk, but may be located on the inner periphery of the disk.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, a pinhole corresponding to the starting point of a scan is arranged on a Nipkow disc, and the starting point of a scan track is rotated during rotation of an optical scanner using transmitted light from the pinhole. , The optical scanner device can be easily synchronized with an external imaging device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of a Nipkow disk type optical scanning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of a Nipkow disc.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a top view of each disk.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a conventional confocal microscope.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 the incident light 20 Nipkow disk 20 _1, 30 ₁ scan track 20 _second scan start detection pinhole 21 photodiode 22 current-voltage conversion circuit 23 a voltage comparator circuit 24 a reference voltage 25 imaging device 30 microlens array disk 30 _second scan start point detecting micro Lens 40 Polarizing beam splitter

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-5-60980 (JP, A) JP-A-2-157718 (JP, A) JP-A-61-167619 (JP, U) 508235 (JP, A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G02B 21/00 G02B 21/06-21/36 G02B 26/10-26/10 109

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A Nipkow disk-type optical scanner device used for a confocal microscope configured so that an image of a sample can be observed by an imaging device and including an optical scanner portion provided with a Nipkow disk, wherein a scan track is provided on the Nipkow disk. A scan start point detection pinhole corresponding to the start point is provided,
A Nipkow disk comprising means for photoelectrically converting light transmitted through the pinhole for detecting a scan start point to generate a trigger signal for the image pickup apparatus, so that a scan cycle and an image pickup cycle of the image pickup apparatus can be synchronized. Type optical scanner device. 2. A microlens array having the same pattern as a pinhole pattern of a Nipkow disk disposed on an incident light side of the Nipkow disk, and condensed light of each microlens of the microlens array is applied to a corresponding pinhole of the Nipkow disk. 2. A Nipkow disk-type optical scanner device according to claim 1, wherein a microlens array disk configured to be incident is provided in said optical scanner portion.