Development of a high speed imaging microscope and new software for nuclear track detector analysis

Abstract

Automated digital imaging optical microscopy is widely used for diagnostic applications in the health care and biology fields and for routine inspection in industrial applications such as semiconductor fabrication. These applications require the imaging of large areas at high speed in order to obtain sufficient data for image processing with good statistics. Track detector analysis also benefits from the rapid acquisition of large areas on the detector surface. We have developed a new microscope system, the HSP-1000, for high speed image acquisition that uses a line sensor camera in place of a traditional CCD camera. Continuous, automatic focusing of the microscope is achieved by means of an optical pick-up system that provides fast feedback for control of distance between the objective and the image surface. Using transmitted light illumination, the microscope is able to digitize a 1 cm 2 area at 0.35 μ m / pixel resolution in ∼ 20 s . As a result of continuous stage motion and continuous focusing, we have attained image acquisition speeds that are 50–100 times faster than conventional CCD-based microscope systems. In this paper, we describe a number of aspects of the microscope system including the use of the line sensor and the automatic focus system.