Precise Sample Positioning is Crucial for Conclusive Images
· Markus Wiederspahn· Dr. Thomas Bocher
Lightsheet microscopy (LSFM) is a powerful platform for in vivo imaging offering low phototoxicity and fast image acquisition. The Flamingo project from Professor Dr. Jan Huisken, Research Group Leader and Director of the Medical Engineering Department at Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, WI, aims to make this technology easily available to researchers.
An In-house Development for Precision over Large Travel Ranges
· Doris Knauer
For conventional nanopositioning with piezo actuators and large travel ranges from 1 mm, incremental position sensors such as PIOne are used instead of capacitive sensors. Dr. Axel Grabowski, Head of Sensor Development at PI and developer of PIOne, explains the advantages of the the incremental position sensor with maximum resolution and moderate energy consumption.
Viruses and other infections particularly affect people with pre-existing conditions such as renal or cardiovascular diseases. In regard to the treatment and therapy of such illnesses, the demands on the medical devices used are ever increasing. Piezo technology offers various possibilities to improve them: Using piezo transducers, for example, makes intensive care devices such as infusion systems smarter and facilitates vital patient monitoring.
In vitro diagnostics (IVD) opens up numerous possibilities for early diagnosis and detection of diseases. The requirements for fluid handling in IVD devices are extremely demanding: very small quantities of fluids with different properties must be dosed or moved with high precision. Piezoelectric components and actuators perform these tasks.
These are very exciting times: state-of-the-art technological developments are happening faster and faster. We are turning science fiction into reality. Earlier this month I travelled to Brussels to talk about one of the most important technological developments I have seen in my career: parallelism in automated photonic alignment.
