Progress report towards a digital mirror device based confocal microscopic system

It is widely believed that by using a digital mirror device (DMD) as the spatial light modulator (SLM) of a programmable array microcopy (PAM), it is possible to achieve a cost-effective alternative to expensive confocal imaging devices. During the past decade, the design of such a DMD based PAM instrument has been frequently reported to enhance resolution and contrast, convincing images with improved quality are rare to be seen. The concrete implementation of a DMD based PAM instrument needs to successfully resolve multiple issues such as the adverse effects caused by the tilt angle of the micro-mirrors from the base board, the registration between a micro mirror of the DMD and the image pixel of the photo-detector and so on. In this paper, we report the design of a middle body consisting of a DMD as an independent attachment to a conventional microscope to convert the latter into a confocal imaging system, in a similar way as a filter turret that is placed below the head and the objectives of a regular microscopy to convert it into a fluorescent microscopy. Images of real objects with improved contrast are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of using a DMD as SLM to improve the contrast of a PAM instrument. Such a PAM instrument has many advantages compared to conventional laser-scanning confocal systems including lower costs and higher imaging speeds. In addition, it allows convenient dynamic adjustments between imaging quality and imaging speed.