This 3D microscope system enables faster volumetric imaging than available systems without sacrificing image quality. Medical and engineering applications globally use 3D optical microscopy; that market should be valued at $280 million by the year 2026. Volumetric optical microscopy has revolutionized fields like biomedical research, but current methods for capturing 3D datasets are time-consuming and unable to capture highly dynamic processes. Although substantially faster volumetric imaging could be achieved by integrating tunable lenses into the microscope design, the adoption of this approach has been limited by the resulting reductions in image quality.
Researchers at the University of Florida have developed a microscope system that accelerates volumetric imaging using tunable lenses without reductions in image quality. This design captures images with greater fields of view, reduced blurriness and color offsets, and greater focal depth than comparable 3D microscopy systems.
3D microscopy system that accelerates volumetric imaging and produces higher-quality images than other rapid volumetric imaging approaches
This 3D microscopy system uses a tunable lens to capture high-quality volumetric images rapidly. To prevent degradation of image quality, the system corrects negative image aberrations in the optical path resulting from changing the lens focus by introducing positive image aberrations in another part of the optical path. This results in an imaging system with a greater field of view and greater focal depth than other comparable systems.
