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Optical Microscopes (optical + microscopes)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Engineering	50%

Selected Abstracts

Hybrid platform for high-tech equipment protection against earthquake and microvibration

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, Issue 8 2006
Y. L. Xu
Abstract To ensure the high quality of ultra-precision products such as semiconductors and optical microscopes, high-tech equipment used to make these products requires a normal working environment with extremely limited vibration. Some of high-tech industry centres are also located in seismic zones: the safety of high-tech equipment during an earthquake event becomes a critical issue. It is thus imperative to find an effective way to ensure the functionality of high-tech equipment against microvibration and to protect high-tech equipment from damage when earthquake events occur. This paper explores the possibility of using a hybrid platform to mitigate two types of vibration. The hybrid platform, on which high-tech equipment is installed, is designed to work as a passive isolation platform to abate mainly acceleration response of high-tech equipment during an earthquake and to function as an actively controlled platform to reduce mainly velocity response of high-tech equipment under normal working condition. To examine the performance of the hybrid platform, the analytical model of a coupled hybrid platform and building system incorporating with magnetostrictive actuators is established. The simulation results obtained by applying the analytical model to a high-tech facility indicate that the proposed hybrid platform is feasible and effective. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Breaking the Barriers in Bio Research

IMAGING & MICROSCOPY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2007
STED Superresolution Microscopy
More than 130 years ago, Ernst Abbe set up the law that far-field optical microscopes are limited in resolution to approximately half of the wavelength of light. Today, these limits have been broken by two new concepts of microscopy: 4Pi and STED (Stimulated Emission Depletion) microscopy. Both techniques are revolutionizing the biomedical research environment, by providing resolution beyond what is possible with best light microscopes today, while maintaining all advantages of structure-specific fluorescence tagging. The principles have been invented by Stefan Hell of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany, and are commercialized by Leica Microsystems CMS. While the Leica TCS 4Pi is already available, the Leica TCS STED system will be introduced to the market in 2007. [source]

Using scanning electron, confocal and optical microscopes to measure microscopic holes in trays

PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, Issue 6 2005
Laura Bix
Abstract Package integrity is of paramount importance to the medical device industry. As healthcare costs soar and integrity testers become more and more sensitive, concern with the question ,what hole size allows microbial penetration into device packages?' is re-ignited. However, producing a consistent and measurable defect in the microcosm presents challenges. Varying techniques are currently employed to produce these defects. Use of an excimer laser is one of the most precise and accurate techniques, and holes ,certified' to be a given size can be purchased at a significant cost. To verify the accuracy and precision of holes drilled with an excimer laser, researchers measured laser-drilled ,exit' and ,entry' holes in glycol-modified polyetheylene terephthalate (PETG) trays using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal microscopy. This data and the certification data provided by the laser driller were analysed using a mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA). Both the effect of measuring technique and hole side (entry vs. exit) were found to be significant. These significant differences have the potential to impact the question that the industry faces with regard to penetration threshold. This suggests that a shift in thinking is needed. Perhaps it would be better if the industry stops thinking about hole size and begins to think in terms of what researchers have referred to as the ,effective hole', which is defined as the volume of gas that will flow through a hole of defined size per unit time. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Magnifying Superlenses and other Applications of Plasmonic Metamaterials in Microscopy and Sensing

CHEMPHYSCHEM, Issue 4 2009
Igor I. Smolyaninov Dr.
Abstract Every last detail: New advances in the construction of metamaterials enable the creation of artificial optical media, whose use in microscopy can provide resolution that is not determined by the conventional diffraction limit. The picture shows a superposition of an AFM image of a plasmonic metamaterial onto the corresponding optical image obtained using a conventional optical microscope. Over the past century, the resolution of conventional optical microscopes, which rely on optical waves that propagate into the far field, has been limited because of diffraction to a value of the order of a half-wavelength (,0/2) of the light used. Although immersion microscopes have slightly improved resolution, of the order of ,0/2n, the increased resolution is limited by the small range of refractive indices n of available transparent materials. However, now we are experiencing a quick demolition of the diffraction limit in optical microscopy. In the last few years, numerous nonlinear optical microscopy techniques based on photoswitching and saturation of fluorescence have demonstrated far-field resolution of 20 to 30 nm. In a parallel development, recent progress in metamaterials has demonstrated that artificial optical media can be created, whose use in microscopy can provide resolution that is not determined by the conventional diffraction limit. The resolution of linear immersion microscopes based on such metamaterials is only limited by losses, which can be minimized by appropriate selection of the constituents of the metamaterials used and by the wavelength(s) used for imaging. It is also feasible to compensate for losses by adding gain to the structure. Thus, optical microscopy is quickly moving towards resolution of around 10 nm, which should bring about numerous revolutionary advances in lithography and imaging. [source]