Nikon Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Jiro Mizuno

Yasuo Yonezawa

Shinichi Ito

Atsushi Takeuchi

Tatsuhiko Ema

Riichiro Takahashi

Masahiko Otomo

Atsushi Tsurumune

Kenji Ono

Mikio Ohsaki

Ken Kawarabata

An ultraviolet microscope comprises an illumination optical system that guides ultraviolet light emitted from a light source to a specimen; and an observation optical system through which the specimen is observed. The illumination optical system and the observation optical system are set within an inert gas atmosphere.

Ultraviolet microscope

An ultraviolet microscope comprises an observation device which observes a specimen with ultraviolet light; a gas supply device which, during the observation with ultraviolet light, supplies an inert gas to surroundings of the specimen; and a timing control device which controls supply timing of the inert gas by the gas supply device, and the timing control device controls the gas supply device so as to cause preliminary supply of the inert gas before the observation of the specimen with ultraviolet light, and also so as to cause regular supply of the inert gas at least during the observation of the specimen with ultraviolet light.

Observation device, ultraviolet microscope and observation method

Illumination light emanated from a laser illumination light source is reflected by a semi-transparent mirror arranged between first and second objective lenses, and illuminates an object through the first objective lens. Reflected light from the object is incident to the photoelectric conversion device through the first objective lens, the semi-transparent mirror, and the second objective lens, and forms an image of the object. The image is captured by a image-taking plane of the photoelectric conversion device tilted relative to the image plane. The second objective lens is telecentric at the image side. The image-taking plane of the photoelectric conversion device is tilted relative to the image plane. Therefore, almost all diffracted light rays from on-axis and off-axis portion of the image-taking plane among all incident light to the image-taking plane are reflected not to enter the second objective lens.

Laser microscope

A focus detecting apparatus of the present invention comprises (a) an image projection unit which projects a first checking light through a first region out of two regions formed by splitting a space into two along a border plane including the optical axis of the objective optical system, onto the measured object to form an image of the light source thereon, and (b) an image detection unit which condenses a second checking light emerging from the image of the light source through the second region opposed to the first region with the border plane inbetween, on a light-receiving surface of a photodetector to form image of the measured object thereon. The image projection unit comprises a first converging optical system, which has a first refractive power in a first plane parallel to the border plane, which has a second refractive power substantially different from the first refractive power in a second plane parallel to the optical axis of the objective optical system and perpendicular to the border plane. The apparatus so arranged can be substantially free of influence of light scattering at a level-difference edge on the object surface and can maintain a high utilization factor of light, whereby it can detect the focus information of the objective optical system on the object with high accuracy.

Focus detecting apparatus and microscope apparatus equipped with the

A stage driving apparatus comprises a stage mounted with a sample and rotatable about an optical axis of an observation optical system for observing the sample, and two guides, for moving the stage within a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the observation optical system, rotatable together with the stage and oriented orthogonal to each other. The apparatus further comprises an input device for inputting a signal representing a moving direction of the stage, a converter for converting a signal inputted to the input device on the basis of an observation image of the sample on the stage through the observation optical system into an output signal with a compensated relative rotational deviation between a moving direction defined by the observation image and a moving direction defined by the two guides and a driving device for moving the stage along the two guides on the basis of the output signal from the converter.

Stage driving apparatus

A guide apparatus for vertical movement of a stage supports a stage supporting member for supporting the stage vertically movable by means of two groups of guide mechanism. Each of the guide mechanism groups is separately mountable with respect to the stage supporting member and is fixed to sandwich the stage supporting member from the left and right side. For one of the guide mechanisms, a highly rigid guide member machined with a high precision is used while a for the other guide mechanism, a guide member having a low rigidity as compared with the foregoing highly rigid guide member is used. One of the guide mechanisms is arranged so that its mounting position can be adjusted to match with the other guide mechanism. The mounting position of one of the guide mechanism is made higher than that of the other guide mechanism. The light path of the beam from a light source is provided lower than the mounting position of the foregoing one of the guide mechanisms.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Jiro Mizuno