JP4039746B2 - Light guide illumination device for microscope - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a light guide illumination device for a microscope used for fluorescence observation with a stereomicroscope.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is an illumination device used for a stereomicroscope or the like in which light is guided from an external light source through a light guide and the light is irradiated toward a sample.
And in the light guide used for such an illuminating device, a ring type thing which bundles glass fibers, such as hundreds and thousands, into one, and arranges this in a ring shape just before a sample, and performs illumination, There are those that are bundled and illuminated, and those that have a condensing lens attached to the tip and the illumination field in the form of a small spot.
[0003]
FIG. 9 shows an example of an illumination device using a ring-type light guide. The stereomicroscope main body 1 is provided with an objective lens 3 corresponding to a stage 2 on which a sample is placed. Then, the tip of the light guide 5 led out from the external light source 4 is arranged in a ring shape inside the adapter 6 provided on the front surface of the objective lens 3, and the sample on the stage 2 is illuminated in a ring shape. I am doing so.
[0004]
FIGS. 10A and 10B show an example of an illuminating device that performs direct illumination from a light guide. In this case as well, the stereomicroscope main body 1 corresponds to the stage 2 on which the sample is placed. 3 is provided. The light guide 5 led out from the external light source 4 passes through the side of the stereomicroscope main body 1 and directly illuminates the sample on the stage 2. In this case, as shown in FIG. 10B, a lens frame 8 having a condensing lens 7 is attached to the front end of the light guide 5 by a fixing screw 9, and the light beam that has passed through the condensing lens 7 is transmitted from the light guide 5. It is focused and spot illuminated.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, such a configuration has only a part for attaching the tip of the light guide 5 led out from the external light source 4 to the adapter 6 on the front surface of the objective lens 3 or attaching the condenser lens 7. For this reason, when performing fluorescence observation of a sample, switching of the excitation light blocking shutter for preventing fading and exchanging filters corresponding to various excitations, which are essential operations for such fluorescence observation, should be performed by the observer. If the field of view changes depending on the zoom magnification as in a stereomicroscope, it should have the same size as the field of view. The illumination field cannot be adjusted, and there is a problem in that the amount of light is insufficient in fluorescence observation in which the intensity of excitation light affects.
[0006]
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an illuminating device that enables various hand operation and can easily perform illumination field adjustment.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The invention according to claim 1 is an external light source provided apart from the microscope body, a light guide for guiding the light emitted from the light source to the sample surface on the optical axis of the objective lens of the microscope body,
At the tip of this light guide , it is provided separately from the microscope main body so that it can be adjusted to an arbitrary illumination angle independently, and any illumination condition of illumination field diameter adjustment, light quantity adjustment, or filter switching can be set. The illumination condition element to be changed and a mechanism capable of adjusting / converting the illumination condition element by the hand of the microscope observer are configured.
[0008]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the illumination condition element is an illumination field adjusting means for adjusting an illumination field diameter of a light beam emitted from the light guide.
[0009]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the illumination condition element is dimming means for adjusting the amount of illumination light.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the illumination condition element is a filter that can be exchanged corresponding to various excitations .
[0010]
As a result, according to the present invention, it is possible to adjust and change various illumination conditions such as adjustment of illumination field, replacement of excitation filter, and opening / closing of the shutter, by the observer.
[0011]
Further, according to the present invention, even when the field of view changes according to the zoom magnification as in a stereomicroscope, it is possible to easily adjust the illumination field so as to have the same size as the field of view.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)
1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an oblique illumination device to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a zoom section obtained by sectioning FIG. 1 at MM, and FIG. 3 is a detailed view of a shutter section. Yes.
[0013]
In the figure, reference numeral 21 denotes an external light source, and one end of a light guide 22 is detachably fixed to the external light source 21. In this case, a light guide mounting hole 211 is formed in the external light source 21, and a click mechanism 26 including a ball 23, a spring 24, and a retaining screw 25 is provided on the inner peripheral surface of the hole 211. Yes. In addition, a V groove 221 corresponding to the click mechanism 26 is formed at the end of the light guide 22 inserted into the hole 211, and the ball 23 of the click mechanism 26 falls into the V groove 221. The external light source 21 is fixed.
[0014]
The other end of the light guide 22 is detachably fixed to the lighting device main body 27. In this case, the lighting device main body 27 has a light guide mounting hole 271 formed at the base end thereof, and a click formed by a ball 28, a spring 29 and a retaining screw 30 on the inner peripheral surface of the hole 271. A mechanism 31 is provided. In addition, a V groove 222 corresponding to the click mechanism 31 is formed at the end of the light guide 22 inserted into the hole 271, and the ball 28 of the click mechanism 31 falls into the V groove 222. The lighting device main body 27 is fixed.
[0015]
The illuminating device body 27 has a cylindrical shape, and a zoom lens 32 and a cylindrical lens frame 33 that supports the zoom lens 32 are provided in the hollow portion thereof as shown in FIG. This lens frame 33 is provided upright by screwing a pin 34 into a part of the outer peripheral surface. The pin 34 passes through a spiral hole 35 formed in the peripheral surface of the lighting device body 27 and protrudes outside the lighting device body 27.
[0016]
Around the illuminating device main body 27, a rotating ring 36 is provided so as to be rotatable along the circumferential direction of the peripheral surface of the illuminating device main body 27. The rotary ring 36 has a linear groove portion 37 extending along the central axis direction on the inner peripheral surface thereof, and the tip of the pin 34 protruding outside the illumination device main body 27 is fitted into the groove portion 37. Thus, by rotating the rotating ring 36, the lens frame 33 having the zoom lens 32 moves along the optical axis LL while rotating along the spiral hole 35 of the illuminating device body 27. ing.
[0017]
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, a screw portion 38 is formed at the distal end portion of the lighting device main body 27, and an annular stopper 39 is fixed to the screw portion 38 by screwing. In this case, the stopper 39 is fixed by an adhesive or fixing screw 40 so as not to loosen. A zoom lens 41 is fixed to the stopper 39. The zoom lens 41 is a pair of the zoom lens 32 and constitutes an illumination adjustment means that is one of the illumination condition elements.
[0018]
A V-groove 42 is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the stopper 39 along the circumferential direction, and the filter frame 43 can be fixed by the V-groove 42. The filter frame 43 has a peripheral wall 431 that covers the periphery of the V groove 42 of the stopper 39, and the tip of the attachment screw 44 is inclined with respect to the V groove 42 by screwing the attachment screw 44 provided on the peripheral wall 431. The entire filter frame 43 is moved to the stopper 39 side along the surface 42a so as to be fixed.
[0019]
The filter frame 43 includes a filter storage chamber 432, and the excitation filter 45 can be stored in the filter storage chamber 432 as one of the illumination condition elements. A shutter 46 is provided on the front surface of the filter frame 43 as one of the illumination condition elements. The shutter 46 is rotatably fixed to the filter frame 43 by a shaft 48 and a spring 49 through a rotation hole 47 formed in a part.
[0020]
The illuminating device main body 27 thus configured is attached to the objective tip fixing member 52 of the stereomicroscope 51 via the flexible arm 50, and at an arbitrary angle with respect to the sample (not shown) by the flexible movement of the flexible arm 50. By making the optical axis LL settable, the oblique fluorescent illumination device is configured.
[0021]
Next, the operation of the embodiment configured as described above will be described.
First, in order to perform oblique illumination, the optical axis LL is set at an arbitrary angle with respect to a sample (not shown) by freely moving the illuminating device body 27 by the flexible arm 50. Thereby, oblique illumination is set, and fluorescence observation or the like is performed under this oblique illumination.
[0022]
Next, in order to perform illumination field adjustment, which is one of the illumination conditions, the rotating ring 36 that is rotatably provided along the circumferential direction of the peripheral surface of the illumination device main body 27 is rotated. Then, since the pin 34 also rotates together with the rotating ring 36, the lens frame 33 having the zoom lens 32 moves along the optical axis LL while rotating along the spiral hole 35 of the illuminating device body 27. . As a result, the distance between the zoom lens 32 and the zoom lens 41 is changed according to the amount of rotation of the rotary ring 36, and the light beam emitted from the light guide 22 is zoom magnification with respect to the plane perpendicular to the optical axis LL. Irradiation is adjusted to the illumination field diameter according to the condition.
[0023]
Next, in order to replace the filter, first, the attaching / detaching screw 44 is loosened, the entire filter frame 43 is separated from the stopper 39, and the excitation filter 45 in the filter storage chamber 432 of the filter frame 43 is replaced with a desired one. Then, the filter frame 43 is positioned with respect to the stopper 39, and the detachable screw 44 is screwed into the V groove 42 of the stopper 39 to be fixed, thereby completing the filter replacement.
[0024]
Next, to open and close the shutter 46, the shutter 46 is rotated about the shaft 48 with respect to the filter frame 43. Then, the light beam emitted along the optical axis LL is blocked by the degree of rotation of the shutter 46, and the amount of emitted light, which is one of the illumination conditions, is adjusted. As the illumination field adjusting means, a zoom lens that can freely change the magnification is desirable, but as another method, it can be realized by exchanging a variable magnification lens having a different magnification or switching by a slider or a turret.
[0025]
Therefore, in this way, since the zoom mechanism using the zoom lens 32 and the zoom lens 41 is provided on the front end side of the light guide 22, the illumination field diameter can be easily adjusted, as in a stereomicroscope. Even if the field of view is changed due to the built-in zoom of the microscope, it is possible to create an optimum illumination field for the field of view at this time, illuminate the sample without losing light, and reliably avoid situations such as insufficient light quantity can do. Further, the excitation filter 45 can be replaced simply by loosening the attaching / detaching screw 44. In addition, all operations such as temporary shading by opening and closing the shutter 46, including the above-described illumination field adjustment, can be performed by the observer, so the burden on the observer's observation work can be reduced. Further, since both ends of the light guide 22 are detachable, for example, if a light guide having a high ultraviolet transmittance is prepared, UV excitation is possible and fluorescence observation that is not affected by autofluorescence can be performed. .
(Second Embodiment)
4 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the zoom section taken along line NN in FIG. 4. The same parts as those in FIG. It is attached.
[0026]
In this case, the illumination device main body 27 has an insertion hole 62 for inserting and removing the filter frame 61 in front of the lens frame 33 of the zoom lens 32.
The filter frame 61 has a filter drop-in part 611 for dropping the excitation filter 63 that is one of the illumination condition elements, and has a knob 64, and the filter frame 61 is slid into the insertion hole 62 with this knob 64. Can be inserted and removed. In this case, a direction identifying step 621 is formed at the opening end of the insertion hole 62, and a direction identifying step 612 is also formed at the end of the filter frame 61 on the knob 64 side. When the filter frame 61 is inserted into the insertion hole 62, the insertion direction of the excitation filter 63 can be specified.
[0027]
A click hole 65 is formed on the side surface of the insertion hole 62, a click mechanism including a ball 66, a spring 67, and a holding screw 68 is provided in the click hole 65, and a ball is formed in the V groove 613 formed in the filter frame 61. The filter frame 61 is positioned in the insertion hole 62 by dropping 66.
[0028]
If it does in this way, after dropping the excitation filter 63 in the filter drop part 611 of the filter frame 61, it inserts in the insertion hole part 62 of the illuminating device main body 27 so that the step parts 612 and 621 for direction identification may face each other. Then, at this time, the ball 66 of the click mechanism of the insertion hole 62 is drawn into the V groove 613 of the filter frame 61, positioned in the insertion hole 62, and attached to the illumination device main body 27. The excitation filter 63 can be easily replaced without using any other.
(Third embodiment)
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the third embodiment of the present invention, and the same parts as those in FIG.
[0029]
In this case, the illumination device main body 27 has a through-hole portion 72 for inserting the slider 71 in front of the lens frame 33 of the zoom lens 32. The slider 71 has a filter drop portion 711 and a light shielding portion 712 for dropping the excitation filter 73 formed in the slide direction. Knobs 74 and 75 are provided at both ends, and the knobs 74 and 75 are provided. The slide operation that you have is made possible.
[0030]
In this case, the distance S from the center of the filter drop-in part 711 to the knob 74 and the distance S from the center of the light-shielding part 712 to the knob 75 are set equal to the radial length T of the illuminating device body 27, and the slider 71 is moved. When the knob 74 is operated and moved until it comes into contact with the illuminating device main body 27, the center of the excitation filter 73 is positioned on the optical axis LL, and conversely, when the knob 75 moves until it comes into contact with the illuminating device main body 27, the light shielding portion. 712 is positioned on the optical axis LL.
[0031]
A C-shaped spring 76 is fitted in the filter drop opening of the filter drop part 711. This spring 76 is attached in a state of being slightly crushed and stretched to the side surface of the filter drop opening to prevent the excitation filter 73 from falling off. In this case, the spring 76 is elastic so that it can be inserted into the filter drop opening of the filter drop part 711 while being crushed by hand, and can be pulled out.
[0032]
In this way, if the slider 71 is slid and moved to a position where the knob 74 contacts the illuminating device main body 27, the center of the excitation filter 73 can be positioned on the optical axis LL. If the knob 75 is moved to a position where it comes into contact with the illumination device main body 27, the light shielding portion 712 can be positioned on the optical axis LL, so that the excitation and light shielding switching operation can be performed only by a simple reciprocating slide operation by the slider 71. Can be obtained.
(Fourth embodiment)
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the fourth embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 8 is a top view of FIG. 7 viewed from the direction of arrow A, and the same parts as those in FIG. ing.
[0033]
In this case, a long hole 82 is formed along the optical axis L direction on the peripheral surface of the lighting device main body 27. A lens frame 83 that supports the zoom lens 32, which is one of the illumination condition elements, is provided in the illuminating device body 27 so as to be movable in the optical axis L direction. This lens frame 83 is provided with a pin 84 upright on a part of its peripheral surface, the tip of the pin 84 protrudes to the outside through the elongated hole 82, and a knob 85 is attached to the tip of the protruding pin 84. The zoom lens 32 can be linearly moved in the direction of the optical axis L together with the lens frame 83 by a slide operation of 85 in the direction of the optical axis L.
[0034]
By doing this, the distance between the zoom lens 32 and the zoom lens 41 can be changed by sliding the knob 85 to move the zoom lens 32 together with the lens frame 83 in the direction of the optical axis L. The illumination field diameter can be adjusted only by a simple reciprocating slide operation using the knob 85.
[0035]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, various illumination conditions such as illumination field adjustment, exchanging filter exchange and shutter opening / closing can be adjusted / changed by the observer, so that the operability of the illumination device is improved. Can be dramatically improved. Further, even when the field of view changes according to the zoom magnification as in a stereomicroscope, it is possible to easily adjust the illumination field so as to have the same size as the field of view.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a zoom unit according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating details of a shutter unit according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a cross section of a zoom unit according to a second embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a fourth embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an example of a conventional lighting device.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of another example of a conventional lighting device.
[Explanation of symbols]
21 ... External light source 211 ... Light guide mounting hole 22 ... Light guide 221.222 ... V groove 23 ... Ball 24 ... Spring 25 ... Retaining screw 26 ... Click mechanism 27 ... Lighting device body 271 ... Light guide mounting hole Part 28 ... Ball 29 ... Spring 30 ... Retaining screw 31 ... Click mechanism 32 ... Zoom lens 33 ... Lens frame 34 ... Pin 35 ... Hole 36 ... Rotating ring 37 ... Groove 38 ... Screw part 39 ... Stopper 40 ... Fixing screw 41 ... Zoom lens 42 ... V-groove 42a ... Inclined surface 43 ... Filter frame 431 ... Peripheral wall 432 ... Filter storage chamber 44 ... Removable screw 45 ... Excitation filter 46 ... Shutter 47 ... Rotating hole 48 ... Shaft 49 ... Spring 50 ... Flexible arm 51 ... Stereomicroscope 52 ... Objective tip fixing member 61 ... Filter frame 611 ... Filter dropping part 612. 21 ... Step 613 ... V groove 62 ... Insertion hole 63 ... Excitation filter 64 ... Knee 65 ... Click hole 66 ... Ball 67 ... Spring 68 ... Screw 71 ... Slider 711 ... Filter drop part 712 ... Light shielding part 72 ... Through hole part 73 ... excitation filter 74 ... knob 75 ... knob 76 ... spring 82 ... long hole 83 ... lens frame 84 ... pin 85 ... knob

Claims (4)

An external light source provided apart from the microscope body;
A light guide for guiding the light emitted from the light source to the sample surface on the optical axis of the objective lens of the microscope body;
At the tip of this light guide , it is provided separately from the microscope main body so that it can be adjusted to an arbitrary illumination angle independently, and any illumination condition of illumination field diameter adjustment, light quantity adjustment, or filter switching can be set. Lighting condition elements to change,
A light guide illuminating device for a microscope, comprising: a mechanism capable of adjusting and converting the illumination condition element with a microscope observer.   2. The light guide illumination device for a microscope according to claim 1, wherein the illumination condition element is illumination field adjustment means for adjusting an illumination field diameter of a light beam emitted from the light guide.   The light guide illumination device for a microscope according to claim 1, wherein the illumination condition element is a light control unit that adjusts the amount of illumination light. 2. The light guide illumination device for a microscope according to claim 1, wherein the illumination condition element is a filter that can be exchanged corresponding to various excitations .

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