JPH08136820A - Sample stage vertical fine adjustment device for laser scanning microscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To improve stability and to obtain a high restitutive property with a simple structure by turning a revolving shaft by means of a rotational driving machine to change the supporting position of the sample stage of an eccentric cam surface and vertically moving the sample stage. CONSTITUTION: The sample stage 4 is installed on a lifting base 6 vertically operated by a manual lifting operation mechanism using reduction gear groups. The sample stage 4 is placed on three eccentric cams 12 disposed atop the lifting base 6. Two pieces of the respective eccentric cams 12 are fixed to one piece of revolving shaft 13 and remaining one piece to another one piece of the revolving shaft 13. The respective revolving shafts 13 are so formed as to be synchronously controlled in their revolutions by the rotational driving machine, angle detector and control circuit. The operation the sample stage 4 is executed in the following manner: The revolving shaft 13 is turned by operation of the rotational driving mechanism, by which the eccentric cams 12 are operated and the sample stage 4 is thereby actuated inch by inch. A turning angle of about 45 deg. is divided to several hundreds and is detected by an angle detector at every operation thereof. The operation is then stopped and scanning is executed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a confocal laser scanning microscope, which is used as a material for a laser microscope for moving a material table up and down by a small height in order to obtain screen information on a cut surface in the thickness direction of the material. A table top and bottom fine movement device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a laser scanning microscope scans a material with a minute spot light and synthesizes hundreds of thousands of brightness information along a scanning line to form one screen. By changing the plane position, it is possible to obtain screen information as if the material was sliced. By processing information of several tens of screens obtained by changing each sliced screen in the thickness direction, it is possible to create a screen with a deep depth of focus while maintaining high resolution. Of course, the slicing function, such as the ability to create a cross-sectional image of a material at a specific material position, is essential for a laser scanning microscope.

Conventionally, in order to obtain this kind of slice screen information, it is common to move the material table up and down to change the position of the focal plane by the spot light with respect to the material. There is a structure like.

First, a reduction gear group and a stepping motor are used. The microscope originally has a manual data base vertical fine movement device using the reduction gear group for focusing. When the fine movement knob is rotated once, the sample table normally moves up and down by 0.2 mm. In most laser microscopes, the fine movement knob shaft is connected with a stepping motor capable of 2000 rotation division control, and the minimum step is 0 by electronic control. Slicing is realized by moving the sample table at 1μ. Restorability varies depending on the fine movement device, but at least about 2μ cannot be covered.

Incidentally, the term "restorability" as used herein means the following.

That is, since the fine movement device is composed of the reduction gear group, there is no problem during the upward movement of the slice like a slice, but when performing the slice again after a series of slices, after returning to the initial position, Although it begins, the initial position at that time will be different from the previous position due to the occlusal gap between the gears, so it will be necessary to refocus. This difference is the resilience. [(JIS B-7132: 3-
(9) Equivalent to the term of the fine movement device play 4 μ or less) Secondly, it is called a piezo stage, and the data base is supported by a piezo element in which a crystal slightly expands without applying the fine movement device, and applied. There is one that moves the sample table up and down slightly by the voltage. Vertical movement range (stroke) is small (0.1
However, the slicing step can be made extremely small and the recoverability is good.

Thirdly, it is called a galvano drive stage. It does not rely on a fine movement device, the data base is doubled, one side of the upper data base is a rotation axis, and the other side is a galvano drive mechanism (drive). The axis of rotation of the movable wheel type drive mechanism is used) to slightly incline the sample table up and down to realize slicing at the scanning part. Is about ± 5 minutes, and it is said that there is no practical problem as a slice in a small range. Also, the recoverability is good.

[0008]

In the conventional apparatus using the reduction gear group and the stepping motor described above, it is extremely difficult to manufacture a highly-resilient device because of the gear meshing gap of the reduction gear group. Is.

Further, in the conventional piezo stage type, although high restoration property can be obtained with a simple structure, there is a problem that the piezo element itself is extremely expensive and the apparatus is extremely expensive.

Further, in the conventional galvano drive stage system, since the tilt angle of the data base is changed, the slice screens are not parallel, and it cannot be said that the slices are accurate. This is not preferable for a transmission laser scanning microscope.

In view of the above conventional problems, the present invention has an object to provide a vertical movement fine movement device for a laser scanning microscope, which has a simple structure, high stability, high resilience, and low cost. It was made as.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and achieve the intended purpose, the gist of the present invention is to manually move a laser scanning microscope up and down in a vertical direction. An eccentric cam fixed to a horizontal rotation shaft is supported on a lift table supported by a mechanism to load a data base, and the rotation shaft is a movable wheel type rotary drive and an angle detector. By rotating by a predetermined angle using
The present invention resides in a sample table vertical fine movement device for a laser scanning microscope in which the sample table is finely operated with respect to the lift table.
In addition, it is preferable to support the material table on the lifting table so as to be vertically movable in parallel through one or more vertical guides, and it is preferable to further provide a plurality of eccentric cams at intervals in the plane direction.

[0013]

According to the present invention, when the rotary shaft is rotated by the rotary drive, the supporting position of the material table on the eccentric cam surface is changed and the material table is moved up and down. The angle detector stops the driving of the rotary shaft by the rotary drive by detecting a preset operation angle, and scans one slice surface of the material by the laser scanning microscope with spot light to collect information. After that, rotate the rotary drive again for one step,
The next slice plane is scanned with the spot light, and the slice plane information is sequentially acquired.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

In the figure, 1 is a transmission laser scanning microscope main body, 2 is an upper objective lens, and 3 is a lower objective lens. A material table 4 is provided so that the material a can be placed between the two objective lenses 2 and 3. This data base 4
It is installed on an elevating table 6 that is vertically moved by a manual elevating mechanism 5 using a reduction gear group.

Similar to the conventional microscope, the manual lifting mechanism 5 is configured such that the coarse movement knob 7 makes a large movement with a small reduction ratio and the fine movement knob 8 makes a small movement. The elevator table 6 is moved by 0.2 mm by rotating the manual knob 8 once.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the slide guides 10, 10, 1 in the vertical direction, which are stroke bearings, are installed on the upper surface of the lift table 6 so as to be opened on the upper surface.
0 is installed at the apex position of a substantially equilateral triangle, and slide shafts 11 projecting from the bottom surface of the material table 4 are fitted into the slide guides 10, respectively, whereby the material table 4 moves up and down with respect to the lift table 6. It is supported so that it can be translated.

The material table 4 is loaded on three eccentric cams 12, 12, 12 provided on the upper surface of the lift table 6.

As shown in FIG. 5, the eccentric cam 12 is of a cylindrical type that is eccentric with respect to the rotating shaft 13, and has a ball bearing 14 fitted on the outer periphery thereof. The surface is the contact plate 1 on the lower surface of the table 4.
It is in contact with the lower surface of No. 5. The data base 4 is pulled toward the lift base 6 by the coil spring 16, and the eccentric cam 12 and the contact plate 15 are always in contact with each other at a constant pressure.

Each eccentric cam 12 has two rotating shafts 1.
3, the remaining one is fixed to the other rotary shaft 13, and the rotation of each rotary shaft 13 is synchronously controlled by the rotary drive machine 21, the angle detector 22, and a control circuit (not shown). It is like this.

The rotary drive unit 21 is a small high-power movable wire wheel type drive unit capable of operating a rotation angle of about 45 °, and the angle detector 22 is a non-contact type high resolution type. To do.

The operation of the material table 4 is such that the eccentric cam 12 is operated by the rotation shaft 13 being rotated by the operation of the rotary drive machine 21, whereby the material table 4 is minutely operated. A rotation angle of about 45 ° is divided into several hundreds, each time the operation is detected by the angle detector 22 and stopped, and one slice plane is scanned by the spot light at each stop. ing.

Since the up-and-down linear movement of the pedestal 4 by the eccentric cam 12 becomes a sine movement, the output of the angle detector 22 and the movement amount are calculated. In the case of this embodiment, the movement amount of the data table is 0.5 μ. The control circuit memorizes the data in advance and controls it so that the output of each detector can be obtained 400 times within the total movement amount of 0.2 mm by the eccentric cam 12.

When desired data is input to the control circuit, the rotary drive machine 21 moves until the output of the detector 22 matches the data and stops.

When obtaining data obtained by slicing the material in the thickness direction, first, the data is given so that it is at the bottom of the vertical movement by the eccentric cam 12, and manual knobs 7 and 8 are operated at that position. After focusing the microscope with the microscope, switch to the laser and specify the desired slice step amount and number of slices in the control circuit. Scanning with spot light is performed every time.

[0026]

As described above, in the present invention, when the material is finely moved to change the scanning position, the fine movement mechanism by the reduction gear group provided in the microscope is not used, and the lifting table and the material are used. Since the eccentric cam provided between the table and the table allows the sample table to move in parallel in the vertical direction, it is possible to obtain a highly recoverable object with a simple fine operation mechanism.

Further, since the movable wheel-type rotary drive mechanism is used, a high-output type can be obtained in a small size, the structure is simple, and no special expensive member is required. Cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a laser scanning microscope embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a material table portion implemented in the same as above.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of an elevator table portion of the above.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the eccentric cam portion of the above.

5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 a Material 1 Microscope main body 2 Upper objective lens 3 Lower objective lens 4 Material table 5 Manual lifting mechanism 6 Lifting table 7 Coarse movement knob 8 Fine movement knob 10 Slide guide 11 Slide shaft 12 Eccentric cam 13 Rotation shaft 14 Ball bearing 15 Contact plate 16 Coil spring 21 Rotary drive 22 Angle detector

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A document table is loaded on a lift table supported by a laser scanning microscope main body via a vertical manual lifting mechanism, and supported on an eccentric cam fixed to a horizontal rotating shaft. Then, by rotating the rotary shaft by a predetermined angle by using a movable wire wheel type rotary drive and an angle detector, a laser scanning microscope for finely moving the sample table with respect to the elevating table. Vertical movement of the data table. 2. The sample table vertical fine movement device for a laser scanning microscope according to claim 1, wherein the sample table is supported on the lift table so as to be vertically movable in parallel through one or more vertical guides. 3. A vertical movement table for a laser scanning microscope according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of eccentric cams are provided at intervals in the plane direction.