System for synchronization in a line scanning imaging microscope

1. A line confocal microscope system, the system comprising:

a light source;

a line forming unit configured to form a line shaped light beam;

a scanning unit in the form of a mechanically driven scanning unit with a controllable scanning trajectory;

an actuator configured to detect an angular position of the scanning unit;

an objective lens; and

a two dimensional sensor unit operated in a rolling line shutter mode in synchronization with the scanning unit,

wherein the scanning trajectory of the scanning unit is controlled by controlling of an actuation of the actuator in accordance with one or more scan parameters defining the scanning trajectory, and the scanning trajectory is set to have an acceleration part outside a field of view of the sensor unit such that the scanning unit reaches a scan speed defined in accordance with the one or scan parameters before it reaches the field of view of the sensor unit, and

wherein the synchronization of the scanning unit and the sensor unit is tuned on the fly by detecting, in real time, the angular position of the scanning unit and a position of the rolling shutter line of the sensor unit, and controlling the scanning unit for synchronized positioning at subsequent rolling shutter positions based on a signal indicative of any detected difference between a measured actuation of the actuator and a desired angle of the actuator defined according to the scanning trajectory.

2. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein the scanning trajectory of the scanning unit is set to have a deceleration part outside the field of view of the sensor unit.

3. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein the scanning trajectory of the scanning unit is controlled as a function of image acquisition time.

4. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein the scanning trajectory of the scanning unit is controlled as a function of rolling line shutter width.

5. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein the scanning trajectory of the scanning unit is adapted to the field curvature of the optics.

6. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein the image acquisition of the sensor unit and the scanning motion of the scanning unit are initiated at a predetermined delay with respect to each other to compensate for differences in response times for the units.

7. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein the scanning unit is a mechanically driven scanning mirror unit that comprises a scanning mirror that can be tilted about an axis by the actuator.

8. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein the two dimensional sensor unit is a CMOS camera.

9. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein field of view of the sensor unit is equal to the full sensor unit area, and/or is selectable to be a smaller section of the sensor unit area.

10. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein the synchronization of the scanning unit and the sensor unit is tuned in real time by detecting a scanning position, determining a response time of the scanning unit, correlating the scanning position and the response time to a present rolling shutter position of the two dimensional sensor unit, and controlling the scanning unit for synchronized positioning at subsequent rolling shutter positions of the two dimensional sensor unit based on the determined response time.

11. The line scan confocal microscope system of claim 1 , wherein a scan performed by the line scan confocal microscope system comprises:

positioning the scanning unit at a predefined starting location outside the field of view of the sensor unit,

moving the scanning unit to the edge of the field of view of the sensor unit, and controlling the scanning speed in accordance with preset line scan parameters,

initiating the rolling shutter mode registration when the scanning unit is positioned at the edge of the field of view of the sensor unit,

registering line-by-line control signals from the sensor unit,

controlling the scanning unit based on the detected response time to move in rolling shutter line-size steps whenever the line-by-line control signal from the sensor unit changes, and

ending the line scan when a predetermined number of line-by-line control signals have been received from the sensor unit indicating that the field of view has been scanned.