On-line Resolution Calculator Applied to Etaluma Objectives

The following site may be useful to draw to people’s attention when specifying objectives on the Etaluma:

https://www.microscope.healthcare.nikon.com/microtools/resolution-calculator/#Focus

I have configured a custom resolution calculation using the sensor data supplied by Etaluma, here exemplified at 10x/0.3NA:

To take account of the shorter tube lens (which gives ¼ magnification expected cf Nikon 200mm tube) I have applied a “Camera relay” and “System magnification” factors of 0.5 each (thus 0.25 demag). For people contemplating their objective configs the numbers above are in broad agreement with what we might expect based solely on the engineering.

My intention is to make a kind of crib sheet so that they can work through the critical success factors for particular µSiMs. It would be useful to have a list of the active area form factors and layer thicknesses for the different assemblies. I can then work up a table of critical information which they can dive into to their own satisfaction/thesis committees/grant reports etc. There is chapter and verse of the relevant formulae built right into the tool on the page there, really handy and compact source of quality information.

The main take-home of the analysis above is that at 10x all layers will be “in focus” simultaneously (depth of field is 2.6mm).

I don’t know how Etaluma’s z-stack software “deconvolution” operates, but we can find out through the first data sets. Without the ability to tile-scan on the 820 having a single-shot capture of the whole chip may be viewed as desirable but I’ll need to see data to know what we can pull out and conclude among wrt layers within the prep.