Miniaturized objective-lens array for slide scanner

描述(由申请人提供)：我们建议开发一种用于组织病理学中产生虚拟幻灯片的载玻片扫描仪的创新光学元件。这些光学器件将允许以数值孔径NA=0.65的单次扫描扫描显微镜载玻片，以0.5微米的采样覆盖整个载玻片的宽度和长度。这一创新包括使用一组微型物镜，每个物镜的直径约为2 mm，长度约为10 mm，在阵列中略有交错，以产生单个无缝的幻灯片扫描。拟议的创新允许非常快速的扫描，在衍射限制采样下，20 mm x 50 mm的全显微镜载玻片只需不到60秒。 专门的诊断专业知识很昂贵，而且往往很难找到。因此，越来越多的材料通过远程病理学进行评估，即通过将数字化图像从远程位置发送到中央诊断设施。不幸的是，扫描组织病理切片仍然非常耗时。 阵列显微镜图像采集的并行化使扫描速度比任何单物镜系统提高了15-20倍。此外，阵列显微镜解决方案减少了传统扫描系统中使用的图像拼接或条带拼接所需的计算负担。 创新之处还在于一种基于注塑塑料非球面透镜元件的光学设计，每个元件在不同的板上大量产生。通过堆叠承载用于物镜的透镜元件的板，显微镜物镜阵列完全平行地组装。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose development of innovative optics for a slide scanner to generate virtual slides in histopathology. These optics will allow scanning a microscope slide in a single sweep at a numerical aperture of NA = 0.65, covering the entire width and length of a slide with 0.5-mu sampling. The innovation consists of the use of an array of miniaturized objectives, each measuring approximately 2 mm in diameter and 10 mm in length, slightly staggered in the array, to produce a single, seamless sweep of the slide. The proposed innovation allows very rapid scanning, requiring less than 60 seconds for a full microscope slide of 20 mm x 50 mm, at diffraction-limited sampling. Specialized diagnostic expertise is expensive and frequently difficult to find. Therefore, materials are increasingly evaluated by telepathology, i.e., by sending digitized imagery from a remote location to a centralized diagnostic facility. Unfortunately, scanning of histopathologic slides is still very time-consuming. The parallelization of image acquisition by means of the array microscope results in a gain in scanning speed by a factor of 15-20 over any single-objective system. Furthermore, the array-microscope solution reduces the computational burden that is required in stitching of image tiles or swaths used in conventional scanning systems. The innovation further resides in an optics design based on injection-molded plastic aspheric lens elements, generated in large numbers on separate plates for each element. By stacking up the plates bearing the lens elements for the objectives, the array of microscope objectives is assembled fully in parallel.