Microscopic defects may go unnoticed if inappropriate inspection equipment and lighting are used. Olympus Micro-Imaging offers a number of choices and illumination solutions which greatly improve the quality control of medical devices, whether they are in the research and development phase or the assembly/quality control departments. 

Is glare an issue? Highly polished pieces such as catheters, staples, or needles are best viewed using coaxial or polarized light illumination. These types of illumination, when used with an Olympus stereomicroscope such as the SZ61 or SZX10, significantly reduce the glare of highly reflective areas, providing optimal conditions for viewing the detail and structural aspect of medical device samples.

Do you need to identify defects in the composition and coatings of products such as stents? Precision Z-axis measurements (10nm and greater) can be obtained along with surface roughness and topographic surface finish details using a laser Confocal imaging system such as the Olympus LEXT OLS3000. It may also be necessary to measure the entire part or areas within the part while also inspecting for surface defects, both of which can be done with a measuring microscope such as the Olympus STM6.  This provides both the high quality, high magnification imaging of our BX51 microscope as well as advanced linear scale measurement for overall measurements up to 250 x 150 mm.

The increase in microelectronic technologies to control mechanical devices has also resulted in the need for higher-grade optical inspection. The implementation of specialized DUV (Deep Ultra Violet) light sources and optics enable the characterization of geometries as small as 0.08 um while microscopes using near IR (infra-red) will allow "through silicon observation" which is ideal for sensor or bonded wafer alignment.

High-resolution digital cameras such as the Olympus DP Series and dedicated image analysis software packages such as the Discover Five, enable inspectors and researchers to quickly document their findings, perform analysis, and store information in a report template along with all associated measurement statistics. This type of software package can be used with nearly all Olympus optical imaging tools.