Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM or LSCM) is a technique for obtaining high-resolution optical images.[1] The key feature of confocal microscopy is its ability to produce in-focus images of thick specimens, a process known as optical sectioning. Images are acquired point-by-point and reconstructed with a computer, allowing three-dimensional reconstructions of topologically-complex objects. The principle of confocal microscopy was originally patented by Marvin Minsky in 1957,[2] but it took another thirty years and the development of lasers for CLSM to become a standard technique toward the end of the 1980s.

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