Design and instrumentation of an opto-digital confocal microscope

Abstract

Confocal microscopy has become a vital technique for life sciences due to higher lateral and axial resolution it provides compared to standard epifluorescence microscopy. On the contrary, accessibility to confocal microscopes did not escalate in proportion to its usage around the globe. Therefore, it was aimed to build an opto-digital confocal microscope, eventually leading to a product which will be affordable for research groups, institutes and hospitals. In this work, we present a home-built confocal microscopy setlp using commercially available equipment. The design of the setup was realized using a 488 nm laser, an inverted microscope and optical/optomechanical parts including mirrors, lenses, beam splitter, scan lens. In addition, X-Y galvo scanner was controlled by using a custom-built control electronics. Instrumentation was made using a National Instruments DAQ card and LabVIEW based software. For characterization purposes reference samples were successfully imaged, following imaging of biological specimen. Gained know-how during development and prototyping will contribute vastly to process of producing a robust, desktop, easy to use and affordable confocal microsocope for researchers and organizations at a diverse scale.