Partnership To Bring Extended Depth of Focus Microscopy to New Market Segments

ZEISS and Vision Engineering, a British leading designer and manufacturer of high-quality non-contact measurement, digital 3D visualization, and ergonomic inspection technologies, have partnered up to make real-time extended depth of focus imaging available for more customer groups. DeepFocus 1 combines the ZEISS Visioner 1 digital microscope with Micro-mirror Array Lens System (MALS™) with Vision Engineering’s technical and design expertise. The attractive technology package, combined with the reach of ZEISS’ distributor community, and Vision Engineering’s own sales network will allow more users to benefit from creating instant ‘all-in-focus” images.

ZEISS MALS Technology Provides Instant All-In-Focus Images

Conventional inspection systems are challenged by a shallow depth of field, especially at high magnification. As a result, only a small area of the sample is in focus, which can lead to features being overlooked and the inspection being incomplete as a result. Extensive refocusing to obtain an extended depth of field, or post-processing, is a solution to this problem, but can be time-consuming and complex. However, thanks to its unique MALS Technology, ZEISS Visioner 1 enables the user to see the sample completely in focus in real-time, without the need to Z-stack and post-process a series of images. The key to this is the namesake system with an array of micro-mirrors that can generate “virtual” lenses with distinctly different curvatures and thus focus planes, by changing the orientation of each individual micro-mirror in an orchestrated way. This allows optical inspection for height differences of up to 69mm with an up to 100 times greater depth of focus than that of a conventional microscope, which not only makes the inspection task easier, but also much quicker, saving significant amounts of time. The result is a more efficient failure analysis and quality control process with fast and accurate results. Another part of the DeepFocus 1 package from ZEISS’ side is the powerful ZEN core imaging software suite.

Vision Engineering Ensures Ergonomic Design

Vision Engineering offers customers the ability to configure DeepFocus 1 based on their specific need, with a bench stand, multi-axis stand, or as an advanced inspection workstation in the EVOTIS configuration. Thanks to its 60 years of experience in designing and manufacturing high-quality inspection and measuring systems, the company stands for optimal viewing ergonomics and for improving customer quality and productivity. Thanks to Vision Engineering’s expansive sales network, DeepFocus 1 opens up new market segments to be reached with the innovative Visioner 1 and its benefits.

The company first showcased the fruit of the collaboration during the Productronica trade fair in November 2021.

Collaboration Benefits ZEISS, Vision Engineering, and Customers

Dr. Robert Zarnetta, Head of Business Unit Industrial Microscopy Solutions at ZEISS, is happy about the collaboration: “With the unique MALS™ Technology in the Visioner 1 digital microscope, we offer customers a way to greatly increase their productivity and efficiency during their quality assurance and optical inspection. With its extensive experience, our partner Vision Engineering embeds this in an attractive package that I am sure will convince a lot of new customers.”

Mark Curtis, Managing Director at Vision Engineering, agrees: “We at Vision Engineering have been offering our customers state-of-the-art solutions for their measuring and inspection tasks for a long time. Through this partnership with ZEISS, we continue this tradition with DeepFocus 1, utilizing the best technology available for real-time extended depth of focus. Thanks to our strong ties to our global customer community, we are delighted to partner with ZEISS to make this great solution become even more widespread – a clear win-win situation.”