Method and system for compensating intensity fluctuations of an illumination system in a confocal microscope

US6444971B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Leica Microsystems Heidelberg GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Johann Engelhardt · Bad Schönborn, DE
• Bernd Widzgowski · Dossenheim, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 31, 1999
• Grant date: Sep 3, 2002
• Expiry date: Dec 31, 2019

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02B21/06
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method and system for compensating intensity fluctuations of an illumination system in a confocal microscope comprise a first and a second analog-to-digital converters for digitizing a first electrical signal corresponding to the light reflected from a specimen, and for digitizing a second electrical signal corresponding to an illumination reference, respectively. The digitized signals are sent to a first and a second look up tables carrying out a log conversion of the first and second electrical signals, respectively. Also provided is a calculator for correcting the first electrical signal for intensity fluctuations of the second electrical signal. The corrected electrical signal is sent to a third look up table for converting the corrected electric signal. The conversion is done by exponentiation of the corrected electrical signal.