A high throughput synthetic aperture phase microscope

Abstract

High speed, high resolution, and large field of view (FOV) are desired for many imaging applications. However, the increase of spatial resolution normally accompanies with a decrease in FOV. Aperture synthesis is often used to improve the spatial resolution, while the requirement of multiple recordings has decreased the temporal resolution. We propose a digital mirror-device (DMD) based synthetic aperture phase microscopy (SAPM) technique to achieve high space bandwidth product (SBP) measurements of sample surface height profiles and quantitative phase maps. Enhanced lateral resolution can be achieved by synthesizing different parts of the sample spatial spectrum, corresponding to different illumination angles, which is experimental demonstrated using resolution targets. The high-speed patterning capability of DMDs and their patterning flexibilities have allowed us to design holograms to generate multiple illumination angles simultaneously to significantly improve the image acquisition speed and reduce data redundancy. With a high-resolution camera and a motorized sample stage, we can extend the sample scanning area to several inches. We envision that the development of this high throughput synthetic aperture phase microscope will enable many potential cutting-edge applications in biomedical imaging and material metrology.