Confocal microscopy with multi-spectral encoding and system and apparatus for spectroscopically encoded confocal microscopy

US6831781B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• The General Hospital Corporation · US

Inventors

• Guillermo J. Tearney · Cambridge, US
• Brett Eugene Bouma · Quincy, US
• Robert H. Webb · Lincoln, US
• Constantinos Pitris · Boston, US
• Millen Shishkov · Marten, BG

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 29, 2001
• Grant date: Dec 14, 2004
• Expiry date: Feb 24, 2022

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01J2003/069
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A scanning confocal microscopy system and apparatus, especially useful for endoscopy with a flexible probe which is connected to the end of an optical fiber (9). The probe has a grating (12) and a lens (14) which delivers a beam of multi-spectral light having spectral components which extend in one dimension across a region of an object and which is moved to scan in another dimension. The reflected confocal spectrum is measured to provide an image of the region.