Nikon Corporation

Yasutoshi Kaneko

Ichiro Sase

Tatsuo Fukui

A microscope apparatus including: an illumination optical system that radiates activation light to activate some of fluorescent materials included in a sample and excitation light to excite at least some of the activated fluorescent materials; an image forming optical system that: has an objective lens and an astigmatic optical system that generates astigmatism to at least part of fluorescence from the fluorescent materials; and forms an image of the fluorescence; an image-capturing unit that captures an image formed by the image forming optical system; a drive unit that moves an image-capturing position in the sample along an optical axis-direction of the objective lens; and a control unit, wherein the control unit causes the image-capturing unit to capture images in a plurality of numbers of frames respectively at a first image-capturing position and at a second image-capturing position different from the first image-capturing position.

Microscope apparatus

Provided is a microscope including: an illumination optical system that irradiates a specimen including a fluorescent substance with illumination light; an observation optical system including an objective lens; an imager that takes an image formed by the observation optical system; an image processor that performs image processing by using a result of the image taking; and a controller that moves at least one of a stage and the objective lens in the optical axis direction of the objective lens.

Microscope, observation method, and storage medium

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for automatically performing detection of a possible exposure error before scanning exposure of a shot field on a substrate. Upon detection of a possible error, the apparatus will automatically continue an exposure sequence without stopping the apparatus. If the detected error is, e.g., a focusing error, the scanning direction for exposure of the shot field and all subsequent shot fields on the substrate are reversed. If the detected error is, e.g., a synchronization error between the mask and substrate, the prescan distance for the subject shot field is increased and the scanning direction for exposure of the shot field and all subsequent shot fields are reversed.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yasutoshi Kaneko