Development of optical system with rotational misalignment adjustment for multi-optical-probe confocal microscopy

Optical scanning confocal microscopy enables high-resolution imaging and optical sectioning for three-dimensional imaging. Technologies to improve confocal microscopy are being developed for applications, such as real-time bioinspection, fluorescence sample imaging, and ultra-high-resolution measurement. Recently, the need for high-resolution large-area inspection of electronics has been increasing rapidly, including large-area display panels. Therefore, the authors constructed an optical system for multi-optical-probe confocal microscopy. A 10 × 10 micro-objective-lens array was fabricated with high fidelity using an ultraviolet nanoimprinting process. To investigate the utility of this system, 1 × 1 mm2 images were examined using an XY-translation nanostage scanning with a travel length of 100 μm.