2D Stage for Inverted Microscope (Economy)

Introducing a 2D (X-Y) Joystick controlled stage I designed and built for Optical Tweezers, but could be used with any inverted microscope. This was a low budget stage system composed of parts from different vendors. The X-Y linear stage had 100nm and X-Piezo stage had .06nm resolution. The stage cost around $2300 (without piezo).Youtube: https://youtu.be/3hyVFVzXgvY

Stage Assembly

• Sample slide holder

• X-Piezo stage: MAD CITY LABS:- Nano OP-30, 30µm travel .06nm resolution

• Miniature Linear Actuators: ZABER:- T-LA28A, 28mm travel 100nm resolution

• X-Y linear stage: NEWPORT:- 460A-XY, 20mm travel

• 2D Platform: THORLABS, 1.5 inches displacement

Stage Components

Sample holder stage designed by me

Piezo stage Adapter

Piezo stage was mounted on the platform with an adapter

This was used to hold a slideright above the objective.

The holder was attached to the piezo stage with 4 rubber pads in between. The pads

were used to control Tip-Tilt.

X-Piezo Stage

X-Y stage can be prepared from a single 2D stage or two 1D

stages by replacing the micrometers with actuators.

X-Y stage Two linear stages

Stage Components

The stage was mounted on X-Y platform, where two plates

were installed for rough adjustment in X-Y to align the

slide center with objective optical axis. A sturdy and high

enough platform was a requirement of the setup

(Olympus IX71 Microscope).

Setup

2D Stage

Microscope

Objective

Objective Z-Piezo

Control Software GUI

I used LabVIEW to write the software to control the stages with a Logitech Attack 3 Joystick. Zaber provides a good library of the drivers. The DNA samples I was using had at least 10K

tethers distributed over 15X15mm slide. For experiments I had to find the right tethers among all by scanning the sample under the microscope. It was not a very easy task but this

stage and the software made it easy.

Optical Tweezers designed and built by Pranav Rathi (PhD)

This was my PhD project: Optical Tweezers for Shotgun DNA mapping (sequencing) and DNA overstretching in water isotopes.