Integrated portable in-situ microscope
View Patent ↗A hand-held microscope includes a rigid tripod stand with adjustable legs, a visual display component, an imaging detector and an optical assembly comprising an imaging lens and an objective lens housed within an imaging tube. Multiple illumination sources can be used in the microscope, including LED or laser diode sources. The microscope can also include interchangeable imaging tubes that enable bright field, dark field, fluorescence and other imaging modalities.
1. An integrated portable microscope comprising:
(a) a tripod stand comprising adjustable legs and affixed to a positioning stage;
(b) a visual display component affixed to the positioning stage;
(c) an imaging detector component electrically connected to the visual display;
(d) an imaging lens and an objective lens both of which are housed within an imaging tube having two ends, one end of which is affixed to the positioning stage and oriented transverse thereto, and the other end of which is directed toward a sample to be viewed;
(e) at least one illumination source, wherein the illumination source is affixed to the imaging tube between the imaging detector and the imaging lens and oriented such that the light is directed toward the imaging lens at an oblique angle; and
(f) at least one imaging module threaded into the imaging tube and attached to a mating threaded flange affixed to the tripod stand,
wherein the imaging module enables dark field, bright field, phase contrast and fluorescence imaging, and
wherein the portable microscope is used for in-situ observation of a specimen.
2. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the imaging detector component is a CCD or a CMOS imaging detector.
3. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the visual display component is an LCD visual display.
4. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the objective lens has a magnification of from 10× to 100×.
5. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the imaging lens has a magnification of from 2× to 10×.
6. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the compound magnification of the imaging and objective lens is greater than 500×.
7. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the objective lens is interchangeable.
8. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the imaging module comprises an imaging detector, an imaging lens, a beam splitter/recombination optic, an interchangeable objective lens, a specimen surface/sample holder, a selectable light source, a light source collimating lens, an iris diaphragm, and a filter.
9. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the illumination source is selected from the group consisting of an LED, a UV LED, a White Light LED, a narrow band LED, a laser diode, any white light source, a mercury lamp, and a xenon lamp.
10. The portable microscope of claim 1 ,wherein the illumination source comprises a ring of alternating color LED lamps located along the imaging tube.
11. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the illumination source comprises a ring of surface mounted LED chips alternating in color around a ring.
12. The portable microscope of claim 11 , wherein the LED chips alternating in color are of ultraviolet, blue, green, red and white light.
13. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the illumination source comprises a beam splitter cube to enable fluorescence, bright field or dark field imaging.
14. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the illumination source is an illumination disk located underneath the sample.
15. The portable microscope of claim 14 , wherein the illumination disk comprises a two-dimensional array of alternating color LED's.
16. The portable microscope of claim 14 , wherein the illumination disk comprises an LCD screen.
17. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the visual display further comprises a digital camera.
18. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the visual display comprises a fused fiber bundle taper.
19. The portable microscope of claim 1 , further comprising a micro-controller electrically connected to the visual display.
20. The portable microscope of claim 1 , wherein the positioning stage can pivot on at least two axes.
21. The portable microscope of claim 1 , further comprising a means of adjusting the focus of the image.
22. The portable microscope of claim 1 , further comprising a removable base plate.
23. The portable microscope of claim 22 , wherein the base plate further comprises a slot to hold a substrate.
24. The portable microscope of claim 1 comprising four or more illumination sources.