PARALLEL CONFOCAL LASER MICROSCOPY SYSTEM BASED ON VCSEL TECHNOLOGY

摘要

Light from a matrix of lasers (23) is focussed by an optical unit (24) on to an object (25). The lasers are vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) and each laser has a photo-detector (22) mounted at the rear and able to receive reflected light from the object. The photo-detector signals are amplified and digitized by a processing unit (21) and sent to a control unit (26) which controls the matrix and optical unit Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) An application of the system in which the miniature head is deployed at the head of an endoscope; (2) A method for realizing confocal parallel laser microscopy in which a photo-detector is attached to the rear of each laser to receive light returning from the object and the laser cavities are used as filters.