TILL Intravital 2P
Integrated Yanus laser scan head for large scan fields with exceptional scan quality - and it can go fast as well!
Schematic of the beam path in our patented Yanus scan head. A hollow-spheric mirror (blue) between the scan axes provides distortion-free scan-fields and allows using two small, similar-sized scan mirrors.
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Our patented Yanus digital scan head is logical choice for a high-end laser-scanning two-photon microscope: It achieves faster frame rates than competing galvo scanners, it is at the same time more precise, and last but not least it is by principle the scanner with the largest usable parameter space. That means you can expect excellent quality in all kinds of scan fields.
>>>Your benefit is exceptional scan quality with homogenous two photon excitation in very large scan fields. Using a 25x objective, you get a field of view of up to 880µm diameter with minimal drop-off at the borders. There are no scan field distortions because of the patented optical concept. Our scan software Colibri gives you 100% control over size and position of the scan field, pixel illumination time, and scan resolution. Instead of choosing from meaningless zoom levels and speeds, you can enter the scan parameters with their SI units.
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Intravital2P allows scanning in any kind of scan field thanks to the built-in Yanus scan head
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Benefits of digital galvo control
Operating the motors of the laser scan head by digital signal processors (DSPs) has huge advantages, which become obvious by comparing with traditional PID controllers.
PID-controlled mirror scanners perform well only in a certain, pre-defined set of scan fields for which the analog controller needs to be optimized manually. The microscope control software takes care of hiding scan fields for which the PID controller is not optimized. Thus the restriction to certain scan field sizes (or "zoom levels") and pixel counts (e.g. 256x256 pixels, 512x512 pixels, ...) of many laser scanning microscopes.
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By using DSP instead of analog PID controllers, Yanus can perform equally well in any scan field, no matter if it is huge with megapixel resolution, or tiny, or anywhere in-between. You can draw the scan field freely, and also rotate the scan field over the full 360°. The typical application for this functionality is acquiring time-lapse data from a certain target structure at the highest possible frames-per-second (FPS) rate. By setting the scan field to snuggly fit the target structure, you can reduce the pixel count to the necessary minimum, and yield much higher FPS. You can set the resolution independently per dimension e.g. 2µm x 0.5µm per pixel. There is no restriction whatsoever to how you can sample the scan fields. You can record the same 100x100µm scan field into a 1000x1000 pixel image (still yielding up 4FPS!), or you can sample it with 12 by 12 pixels (and reach almost 400FPS). For even faster time-lapse recordings, Intravital2P offers line, polygon, and spiral scan modes.
Real vs. fake scan field rotation
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"Real" rotated rectangular scan
The rotated rectangle scan is achieved by altered scan mirror motion. Other microscopes achieve scan field rotation by scanning a larger rectangular scan field and discarding (cropping) pixels to generate a seemingly rotated scan field. Obviously, the cropping-approach does not yield higher, but even lower frame rates if the scan field is rotated to fit the target structure.
Faster AND more precise?
We teach our DSPs to integrate a physical model of the mechanical system into the calculation of timings and accelerations. Combined with a position sensor with 100.000 readings per second this results in a mirror scanner which accelerates faster than other laser scanners, thereby increasing the duty cycle, and at the same time it is absolutely precise, and fully flexible.
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The next level: Fast in 3D!
TILL's VoiceCoil-based focus drive combines excursions of the objective of up to 7.0mm with 20nm resolution. It is faster than piezo both in terms of linear velocity as also in acceleration. Thus, VoiceCoil and Yanus are a dream team which can provide 3D hurricane- or rollercoaster (3D spline-) scans. This feature is still experimental, but it will be available as a feature for new systems, and as an update for installed systems.