Towards an ultrathin multi-aperture microscope

摘要

Recent biomedical developments towards compact, mobile, decentralized and system-integrated diagnostic platformsrequire automated and miniaturized microscopy technologies. Reducing system dimensions by downsizing classical singleaperture optics limits either the field of view (FOV) or resolution. However, arranging multiple miniaturized objectives inparallel allows overcoming this restraint by decoupling the system’s FOV from the axial system length. Based on thisprinciple, we propose a thin multi-aperture microscope concept to image a large FOV with μm resolution. Due to a totaloptical system length of only 10 mm, the imaging optics can be integrated into conventional camera housings.The approach’s potential is demonstrated by introducing a first prototype specified by life science requirements. The finalsystem enables for bright field and fluorescence imaging of (1) multiple separated object fields simultaneously (e.g. parallelmonitoring in microfluidics applications) or (2) extended continuous object areas via sample scanning.Hence, the micro-objective array approach provides a microscopy solution for biomedical applications with tight spacerequirements like point-of-care diagnostic devices, cell incubator microscopes and organ/lab-on-chip long termmonitoring.