{"id":488,"date":"2025-03-12T21:57:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T21:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upgrade.t4tech.co.nz\/?p=488"},"modified":"2025-06-30T00:29:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T00:29:40","slug":"laser-scanning-microscope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/2025\/03\/12\/laser-scanning-microscope\/","title":{"rendered":"Research : Laser Scanning Microscope"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"488\" class=\"elementor elementor-488\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-9212656 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"9212656\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-a0a04f8\" data-id=\"a0a04f8\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d719c83 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"d719c83\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><h1 id=\"page-title\">Laser Scanning Microscope <\/h1><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-e14418a elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"e14418a\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-3cc2635\" data-id=\"3cc2635\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-09790a2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"09790a2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Laser Scanning Microscope is a project which blends Physics, Electronics, Mathematics.<\/p><p>Building this setup was an opportunity to put design skills into practice and work at the boundaries where technology meets science, harmoniously merging mathematical precision with the dance of light and electrons to reveal nature\u2019s tiny marvels.<\/p><p>Laser Scanning microscope works on the underlying principle captured in below formula<\/p><p><strong>Resolution (r) = \u03bb\/(2NA)<\/strong><\/p><p>It states the Resolution of a microscope is<\/p><ul><li>Proportional to the Wavelength of light used to observer the specimen<\/li><li>Inversely proportional to the numerical Aperture (NA)<\/li><\/ul><p>Hence to improve the resolution ( ie make it see smaller objects ) we can do the following:<\/p><ul><li>Pick a smaller Wavelength<\/li><li>Increase the Numerical Aperture<\/li><\/ul><p>We use the former (reduction of Wavelength) to build the Laser Scanning Microscope.<\/p><p>We source the laser from DVD drives which has a wavelength of 650nm. The lower wavelength should give a better resolving power than traditional microscopes which uses light.<\/p><p>NOTE: The resolution can be improved by using Blue Ray (405nm) laser or going all the way to use an electron beam 2.5 picometers ( @ 200 KeV)<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>One of the specimens used was a Integrated Circuit which was de-capped to extract the silicon at the heart of it.<\/p><p>Find below picture of one of the specimens used:<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5eef65c elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"5eef65c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"843\" height=\"620\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PencilTip.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-494\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PencilTip.jpg 847w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PencilTip-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PencilTip-768x565.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 843px) 100vw, 843px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-012d2c2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"012d2c2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: medium;\">Below are some of the pictures taken from the Laser Scanning Microscope setup built using componets from a recycled DVD drive along with some electronics and software to render the image:<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IC_tracks_HQ_2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ICTracks5HQ_filtered.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ic_Triangle_Hq.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/MultiTracks_HQ.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"556\" height=\"556\" \/><br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ICTracks_BQ.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><br \/><\/span><\/p><p><em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fig: All the above images were rendered using the Laser Microscope setup detailed below<\/em><\/p><p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2018-02-11-143409.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"569\" height=\"469\" \/><br \/><\/em><\/p><p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva;\"><em><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Fig: Picture of the decapped IC specimen taken with a USB microscope, The line in the background is 50 micron wide ( 0.05mm ). Compared to this the laser microscope is able to see much further and show the individual tracks in the Integrated circuit.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p><h2>Inner workings of the Laser Scanning Microscope:<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-501\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SpecimenHolder_small-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"843\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SpecimenHolder_small-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SpecimenHolder_small-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SpecimenHolder_small-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SpecimenHolder_small.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 843px) 100vw, 843px\" \/><\/h2><p><em>Fig: Closeup of the Specimen holder, you can see the photodiode wires blue&amp; white and the rainbow cables used for the Horizontal Scan<\/em><\/p><p>The Laser Scanning Microscope has 2 important logical parts<\/p><h4>1. The Scanning drive generator<\/h4><p>This part is responsible for generating the Horizontal and Vertical axis scanning signals to move the Laser across the specimen. The Horizontal scan frequency in my setup is 1\/40 times slower than the Vertical Scan, effectively giving 40 horizontal lines of scans for a specimen.<\/p><h4>2. Picture generation using the reflected light from laser<\/h4><p>The reflected light intensity contains the information of the visual detail of the Specimen, The reflected laser signal needs to be captured and the intensity of the reflected light is to be converted to visual data to reconstruct the picture.<\/p><p>For capturing the light the setup uses a BPW34 photo-diode which is setup in a potential divider circuit, the intensity of light received by the diode now is converted as voltage variations which is captured by the Oscilloscope (RIGOL 1052E ).<\/p><p>This Oscilloscope is connected to a PC which collects the sampled data and then converts the data into a black and white picture after doing some digital signal processing ( removing noise, getting the vertical sync etc )<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-502\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FunctionalDiagram.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"771\" height=\"828\" srcset=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FunctionalDiagram.jpg 771w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FunctionalDiagram-279x300.jpg 279w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FunctionalDiagram-768x825.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-503\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/DriverCircuit_small-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"843\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/DriverCircuit_small-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/DriverCircuit_small-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/DriverCircuit_small-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/DriverCircuit_small.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 843px) 100vw, 843px\" \/><\/p><p><em>Fig: The electronics for the Horizontal &amp; Vertical scan generation<br \/><\/em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-504\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SawToothScanWaveforms_small.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"543\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SawToothScanWaveforms_small.jpg 543w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SawToothScanWaveforms_small-300x193.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 543px) 100vw, 543px\" \/><br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-505\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/TwoLinesOfHScan.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/TwoLinesOfHScan.png 800w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/TwoLinesOfHScan-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/TwoLinesOfHScan-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><br \/><em>Fig: The above pic shows the 3 lines of horizontal Laser scan reflection, ie image data from specimen( green ) and the blue is the Horizontal drive signal<br \/><\/em><br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-506\" src=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PhotoDiodeInterfacing-724x1024.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"724\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PhotoDiodeInterfacing-724x1024.png 724w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PhotoDiodeInterfacing-212x300.png 212w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PhotoDiodeInterfacing-768x1086.png 768w, https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PhotoDiodeInterfacing.png 794w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px\" \/><\/p><p>This is an absolutely fun project to do, its covers physics, mechanics and electronics and it taught me a lot of new things in the course of getting it going.<\/p><p>I found the project has no finish line, its one which you can continuously improve upon.<\/p><p>if you have any questions drop us a line at <a href=\"mailto:contact@t4tech.co.nz\">contact@t4tech.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Laser Scanning Microscope Laser Scanning Microscope is a project which blends Physics, Electronics, Mathematics. Building this setup was an opportunity to put design skills into&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":535,"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions\/535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/t4tech.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}