Autofocus imaging

1. Autofocus imaging system for a microscope, the autofocus imaging system comprising:

a single sensor for acquiring primary image data of an object of interest and for acquiring autofocus image data of an oblique section of the object of interest;

wherein the primary image data is sampled with a first number of pixels per distance in object space;

wherein the autofocus image data is sampled with a second number of pixels per distance in object space;

wherein the second number is between one quarter and three quarters of the first number.

2. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 ,

wherein the second number is half of the first number.

3. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 ,

wherein a resolution of the primary image data is λ(wavelenath)/(2NA(numerical aperture)); and

wherein a resolution of the autofocus image data is λ/(NA).

4. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 ,

wherein the autofocus image data is sampled along a tilt with respect to an optical axis ( 31 ) of the single sensor ( 24 ).

5. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 ,

wherein the autofocus image data is sampled along a tilt in a scan direction ( 6 ) of the single sensor.

6. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a beam splitter for splitting a beam from the object into a first beam comprising the primary image data and a second beam comprising the autofocus image data;

wherein a fraction between an intensity of the second beam and an intensity of the first beam is greater than (1−L 0 /L max ), wherein L 0 =(1−η(sensor quantum efficiency of the single sensor))L(number of stages of the single sensor) and L max is a maximum number of Time Delay Integration stages of the single sensor.

7. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 ,

wherein the autofocus image data is samped at a light frequency outside of the visible spectrum.

8. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 ,

wherein the autofocus image data is a dark field illumination of the single sensor.

9. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 ,

wherein the first number of pixels sampled is comprised of light of different wavelengths.

10. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 ,

wherein the single sensor comprises a line sensor and a two-dimensional sensor.

11. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the single sensor has a same sensing area for primary and autofocus images.

12. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the single sensor comprises a time delay integration (TDI) based line sensor.

13. The autofocus imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the single sensor comprises a sensing area of autofocus pixels that are actual physical pixels located next to or intermixed in an array or arrays of primary image pixels, or are virtual pixels obtained by combining two or more of the primary image pixels into a larger virtual autofocus pixel.

14. A microscope comprising the autofocus imaging system of claim 1 .

15. A method for autofocus imaging of a microscope, the method comprising the following steps:

acquiring primary image data of an object of interest by an image sensor comprising a primary image sensor arrangement;

acquiring autofocus image data of an oblique section of the object of interest by the image sensor;

sampling a first number of pixels per distance in object space, the first number of pixels being pixels of a primary image data;

sampling a second number of pixels per distance in object space, the second number of pixels being pixels of an autofocus image data;

wherein the second number is between one quarter and three quarters of the first number.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, in which a computer program for autofocus imaging of a microscope is stored which, when executed by a processor of the microscope, causes the processor to carry out the steps of:

acquiring primary image data of an object of interest from an image sensor comprising a primary image sensor arrangement;

acquiring autofocus image data of an oblique section of the object of interest from the image sensor;

sampling a first number of pixels per distance in object space, the first number of pixels being pixels of the primary image data;

sampling a second number of pixels per distance in object space, the second number of pixels being pixels of the autofocus image data;

wherein the second number is between one quarter and three quarters of the first number.