System Components for Laser-Free Confocal Microscopy
In a paper published in the SPIE Digital Library, Excelitas Senior Biomedical Applications Scientist Kavita Aswani and Senior Imaging Product & Application Scientist Gerhard Holst, in collaboration with Aurox Chairman and CEO Tony Wilson, examine key system components enabling a modern, laser-free approach to confocal microscopy.
Confocal microscopy is widely used for high-resolution, high-contrast optical sectioning of thick specimens, traditionally relying on laser light sources and point-scanning architectures to reject out-of-focus light. The paper explores how advances in LED illumination, high-sensitivity scientific cameras and inexpensive optical image processing have opened the door to alternative approaches that deliver comparable optical sectioning performance, without the complexity and cost associated with laser-based systems.
The authors detail the factors governing light source and camera selection in a system that combines structured illumination with structured detection to achieve optical sectioning. Two Excelitas solutions are featured as core components of this implementation: the X-Cite TETREM™ 4-Channel LED Illumination System, which provides bright, stable, multi-channel LED excitation, and the pco.pixelfly™ 10 bi CLHS Camera, which delivers high-sensitivity scientific imaging to support the demanding detection requirements of the technique.
Read the full paper, "System Components for Laser-Free Confocal Microscopy," in the SPIE Digital Library to learn how next-generation LED and camera technologies are advancing accessible, high-performance optical sectioning in confocal microscopy.
Citation: T. Wilson, G. Holst, and K. Aswani "System components for laser-free confocal microscopy", Proc. SPIE 13857, Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing XXXIII, 138570A (4 March 2026); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3079981
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