Evaluating the performance of fluorescence microscopes
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 28, 2026

Fluorescence detection methods for microfluidic droplet platforms
Published on: December 10, 2011
1Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6058, U.S.A.
Abstract:
A simple means of evaluating the performance of fluorescence microscopes is described. The proposed test gives an overall figure of merit that takes into account all of the important instrumental parameters that determine image quality. The essence of the test is to use a specimen whose photobleaching rate is a measure of the illumination time-intensity integral. When this time-intensity integral is controlled, the signal-to-noise ratio in the image of small subresolution objects becomes a system-independent measure of light throughput, resolution and intrinsic noise.
Related Concept Videos
Fluorescence and Phosphorescence: Instrumentation
Two-Dimensional Microscopy in Microbiology
Super-resolution Fluorescence Microscopy
Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy

