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Novel gradient focal point (GFP) methods by use of the gradient curvature cylindrical lens, the gradient thickness cylindrical lens and a tilted imaging sensor are proposed for the optical profiler. With the employed simple idea that the different divergence angle of an input beam to the lens generates the different focal position, the height information of one point can be obtained just in a single-shot by GFP approaches. The feasibility of the proposed system is demonstrated to be an alternative to optical profilers.

Previous research presented the structured illumination confocal scanning microscope (SICSM) so as to improve the lateral resolution of the confocal microscope. However, the image acquisition speed of the SICSM is very slow and also an alignment error due to the mechanical rotation of a grating and a slit can easily occur. As a theoretical study, in this paper we propose a new SI method, the cross SI method, which improves lateral resolution and image acquisition speed. Performances of the conventional SI and the proposed SI methods are compared by analysis of the modulation transfer function. The proposed SI method shows similar lateral resolution and can shorten the image acquisition time compared to the conventional SI method. The cross structured illumination confocal microscope (CSICM) is combined with the cross SI pattern optics and the line scanning confocal microscope. We have introduced a 2-D diffractive grating, four linear polarizers and four cylindrical lenses in order to create the cross SI pattern. The effects of the cross SI pattern, intensity and visibility, on the system performance are analyzed. The CSICM has double the lateral resolution of the conventional microscope, an optical sectioning ability and a fast image acquisition speed.