Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Mitsumori Hayashida

Yoshihiro Kawano

Keiji Kimura

Hirofumi Miyamoto

Mitsugu Sakai

Nobuaki Sakai

Iwao Kanamori

The present invention is a virtual-slide specimen image acquisition apparatus that captures images by dividing a specimen into a plurality of sections, having a conveying device in which a plurality of specimens can be arranged and that conveys the plurality of the arranged specimens in a first direction by a distance corresponding to the length of a side along the first direction in one of the divided sections and at first time intervals and an image capturing device that has an image capturing portion for capturing images of the specimens magnified at a predetermined magnification and that scans the specimens conveyed to a predetermined position in a second direction, by a predetermined length at second time intervals, such that the image capturing portion captures images of all of the sections that are positioned identically in the first direction and that are positioned differently in the second direction perpendicular to the first direction.

Virtual-slide specimen image acquisition apparatus

A scanning probe microscope having a probe for scanning a sample, a piezoelectric unit finely movable in the X, Y and Z directions, and a probe control unit for controlling a fine movement amount of the piezoelectric unit in the Z direction in accordance with a detected interaction between the sample and the probe. A driving unit applies a continuously changing voltage to the piezoelectric unit to drive the piezoelectric unit in one of an X and Y direction to scan along a scan line, a displacement detection unit detects the displacement of the piezoelectric unit along the scan line, and a matching detection unit outputs a coincidence detection signal when the detected displacement of the piezoelectric unit along the scan line coincides with target displacement values corresponding to desired measurement points. A surface data acquiring unit acquires sample surface data based on the Z-directional fine movement amount of the piezoelectric unit each time the matching detection unit outputs a coincidence detection signal.

Scanning probe microscope capable of suppressing probe vibration caused

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Tokyo, Japan

Mitsumori Hayashida