Tuberculosis is a major healthcare burden for developing countries. who plans to eradicate tb by 2050, for this goal the number of cases must decrease 16% per year. currently, it is a huge challenge as only 58% of tb infected get diagnosed and treated. delay in the diagnosis of people with active tb further spread the new infections. despite recent advances in rapid diagnostics, the bright field sputum smear microscopy (ssm) remains the most commonly used method for mtb diagnosis in india. in contrast, light-emitting diode fluorescence microscopy (led-fm) for sputum smear examination is recommended by who for detection of acid-fast bacilli in high tuberculosis (tb) burden countries. the availability of fluorescent microscope at most designated microscopy centers, district hospitals and community healthcare centers is still scanty. we have developed a novel patented (2673/del/2015) planar waveguide-based illumination technology called compact total internal reflection fluorescence (ctirf) to observe fluorescent sample using bright-field microscope without any hassle of optical filters, lens installation, and expensive instrumentation.