Tissue Thickness Analyzer

The sponsor develops automated staining systems that process tissue samples affixed to glass slides. These systems use defined protocols to create and control an environment that yields accurate and reproducible staining results. While the samples in a given protocol can be processed identically, the samples provided may not be consistent with one another. Varying thickness in the tissue cuts placed on each slide can influence the final staining results. To help correct this factor, the team developed and implemented a tool and process that can determine these slide-to-slide differences in thickness before processing.The system uses reflectance confocal microscopy techniques. To obtain measurements, the stage with the tissue slide is moved along the optical axis until the top and bottom surfaces of the sample have passed through the focus of the first microscope objective. The voltage measurement of the photodiode, which converts light into electrical currents, records peaks at the top and bottom surfaces of the sample. The thickness is determined by calculating the distance traveled by the stage between the peaks in the photodiode signal.