The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 30, 2004
Filed:
Jul. 01, 2002
Michael J. Mandella, San Jose, CA (US);
Mark H. Garrett, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
Gordon S. Kino, Stanford, CA (US);
Optical Biopsy Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
This invention provides an angled-dual-axis confocal scanning microscope comprising a fiber-coupled, angled-dual-axis confocal scanning head and a vertical scanning unit. The angled-dual-axis confocal scanning head is configured such that an illumination beam and an observation beam intersect optimally at an angle &thgr; within an object and the scanning is achieved by pivoting the illumination and observation beams using a single scanning element, thereby producing an arc-line scan. The vertical scanning unit causes the angled-dual-axis confocal scanning head to move towards or away from the object. By integrating the angled-dual-axis confocal scanning microscope of the present invention with fiber-optic components and a fiber-coupled laser, the present invention also provides an assembly of fiber-based angled-dual-axis confocal scanning systems that can be particularly powerful tools in biological and medical imaging applications, such as instruments for performing optical coherence microscopy and in vivo optical biopsies.