JPH0525347U - Sample microwave processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Modified) [Purpose] Irradiate the sample with a uniform intensity while the sample is held stationary without rotating the holding table. [Structure] A processing chamber 11 is formed in a shield case 10, and a microwave generator 4 such as a magnetron is provided on the side thereof.
Is disposed, and the microwave emission port 6 is disposed downward on the top surface of the processing chamber 11. A reflection plate 13 having an uneven reflection surface 13a on its surface is rotatably supported on the bottom surface of the processing chamber 11. A pulley 16 attached to a motor 15 via a belt 14 is attached to the reflection plate 13.
Are connected and rotated by the drive of the motor 15. Further, on the reflection plate 13, a cell holding portion 3 for holding the cell 1 containing the sample a is installed by a column 7 standing upright from the bottom surface of the processing chamber 11. Reflector 1
The height of the cell holding portion 3 from the reflecting surface 13a of 3 is 10 to 3
0 mm is suitable.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing a sample for observing with an electron microscope or an optical microscope, or for performing various kinds of analysis, and more specifically, to an apparatus for processing a sample using a microwave.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 For example, when observing a biological tissue sample with an electron microscope, the collected sample is fixed with a fixative, dehydrated, and then embedded in a resin-based embedding medium, which is then subjected to this embedding treatment. It has been practiced to cut a sample with a microtome to obtain an ultrathin section sample and observe it to obtain an electron microscope image. Conventionally, in the processing of these samples, fixing and embedding have been carried out for a long time by putting the sample in each processing agent. However, this does not allow us to immediately respond to an urgent need to obtain an electron microscope image of a biological tissue sample.

Therefore, as a means for greatly reducing the processing time, fixing and embedding using a microwave having a frequency of 2.45 GHz has been proposed and has been successful. For example, when embedding a biological tissue sample using microwaves, the fixed and dried biological tissue sample is put into an embedding medium mainly composed of a resin, and the embedding medium is subjected to microwaves. The agent is applied to polymerize and cure the agent, and the living tissue is embedded therein.

It is said that what is important in this embedding treatment is to sufficiently permeate the embedding medium into the living tissue and to completely polymerize the embedding medium. To ensure this point, it is necessary to optimize the microwave irradiation and control the temperature of the embedding medium to a predetermined temperature. On the other hand, in order to carry out a large amount of fixation and embedding processing using microwaves, a large number of cells are housed in a processing chamber that irradiates microwaves, and these cells are rotated by a turntable or the like so that microwave irradiation is uniform. It is necessary to process them at the same time while trying to realize them.

[0005]

[Problems that the device is trying to solve]

 However, no matter how the microwave is radiated while rotating the turntable, the microwave generated by the microwave generator hits the inner wall of the processing chamber, the turntable, or the cell, and is reflected, interfered with, or absorbed, Because of the complicated propagation in the processing chamber, even if the microwave is irradiated while the cell is rotated on the turntable, the imbalance of the microwaves applied to the individual treatment agents is likely to occur. The imbalance of the microwave irradiation amount depends on various conditions such as the cell arrangement and the type of treatment agent. If the microwave irradiation amount is different for each sample, the treatment becomes non-uniform and the treatment is likely to be defective.

Further, when processing is performed while rotating the turntable filled with the sample, the vibration accompanying the rotation is transmitted to the cell filled with the sample. For this reason, it was not possible to process samples that were not suitable for vibration or impact during processing using this device. Note that these problems are not limited to the embedding and fixing treatment of the electron microscope observation sample, but are common to all cases where the sample is treated with microwaves. It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to provide a sample microwave processing apparatus capable of uniformly irradiating a microwave to a sample while the sample remains stationary without rotating the turntable. And

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 That is, the gist of the means adopted in the present invention to achieve the above-mentioned object is that the cell holding part 3 holding the cell 1 filled with the sample a and the cell 1 held in the cell holding part 3 are In a sample microwave processing apparatus having a means (4) for irradiating a sample a with a microwave, a reflecting plate (13) having an uneven reflecting surface (13a) arranged below the cell holding section (3) and rotating the reflecting plate (13). The sample microwave processing apparatus is characterized in that it is provided with a mechanism for making it and a microwave radiation port 6 arranged on the cell holding part 3 so as to face the reflection plate 13.

[0008]

[Action]

 According to the sample microwave processing apparatus of the present invention, since the cell holder 3 is not rotated but the reflection plate 13 thereunder is rotated, the sample held in the cell holder 3 can be processed while being stationary. , It does not need any vibration or shock. Further, by rotating the reflecting plate 13 having the concave-convex reflecting surface 13a facing the microwave radiation port 6, it is possible to irradiate the cell holding portion 3 with microwaves with uniform intensity, as described later. it can.

[0009]

【Example】

 Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the entire apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows the essential parts thereof. In these figures, a processing chamber 11 is formed in a shield case 10, a microwave generator 4 such as a magnetron is arranged on the side of the shielding case 10, and its microwave emission port 6 is located on the top surface of the processing chamber 11. It is arranged toward. A shaft 12 is vertically provided on the bottom surface of the processing chamber 11, and a reflector 13 is rotatably supported on the shaft 12. A pulley 16 attached to a motor 15 is connected to the reflection plate 13 via a belt 14 and is rotated by driving the motor 15.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, for example, the reflection plate 13 is an aluminum plate having a thickness of about 1 mm, and the unevenness is formed on the upper surface of the aluminum plate. Each top has a height of about 0.3 mm. A cell holder 3 for holding the cell 1 accommodating the sample a is installed on the reflection plate 13 by a pillar 7 standing from the bottom surface of the processing chamber 11. The height of the cell holding portion 3 from the reflecting surface 13a of the reflecting plate 13 is preferably 10 to 30 mm.

In the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, when a microwave of 2.45 GHz is emitted from the microwave emission port 6 of the microwave generator 4 with an output of 50 to 200 W, the microwave is generated in the processing chamber 11. The cells 1 and 1 held by the cell holding portion 3 are reflected by the wall surface or the reflecting surface 13a of the reflecting plate 13 to form standing waves, and the sample a 1 therein is heated. In this case, microwaves are diffusely reflected by the reflecting surface 13a of the reflecting plate 13 having irregularities, and the reflecting plate 13 rotates, so that uniform intensity can be obtained near the cells 1 and 1 on the cell holding portion 3. The sample a is irradiated with a standing wave.

In the embodiment of the present invention, it can be confirmed by the following method that uniform microwave intensity is obtained on the cell holder 3. That is, a plurality of discharge tubes 5 that discharge and emit light when irradiated with microwaves are dispersedly arranged in the cell holder 3. The discharge tube 5 may be of any type as long as it produces a light emission phenomenon of gas molecules by the discharge in the tube, and the electrode enclosed in the tube is electrically grounded without being grounded. It is arranged in the cell holding unit 3 in this state. With the discharge tube 5 arranged in this way, it was visually confirmed that in the apparatus of FIG. 1, the microwave irradiation intensity distribution on the cell holding portion 3 was uniform. Of course, the present invention can be applied not only to embedding and fixing treatment of an electron microscope observation sample but also to general treatment of a sample with a microwave.

[0013]

[Effect of the device]

 As described above, the present invention can provide a sample microwave processing apparatus capable of uniformly irradiating a microwave on a stationary sample without rotating the turntable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall sectional view of a sample microwave processing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts of the device.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of a reflection plate of the same device.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of the reflector.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cell 3 Cell Holder 4 Microwave Generator 6 Microwave Emission Port 13 Reflector 13a Reflector Reflector

Claims (1)

[Reference number] 0910019-02 [Claims for utility model registration] 1. A cell holding part (3) holding a cell (1) filled with a sample (a) and a sample (a) in the cell (1) held by the cell holding part (3). In a sample microwave processing apparatus having a means (4) for irradiating a microwave, a reflection plate (13) arranged below the cell holding part (3) and having an uneven reflection surface (13a), A sample comprising a mechanism for rotating the reflection plate (13) and a microwave radiation port (6) arranged on the cell holding part (3) so as to face the reflection plate (13). Microwave processing device.