Lensless near-contact imaging system for micro assembly

A method for operating a machine vision system suitable for use with a microassembler system for inspection of assembly of micro-objects on a planar working surface, the method comprising:

• arranging an array of lensless near-contact image-capture modules (LNCIM) below a transparent substrate and vertically proximate to a working optical inspection region on a planar working surface of the transparent substrate, wherein each LNCIM having a high pixel-count large format image sensor (image sensor), with an optical filter interposed between the image sensor and the transparent substrate, vertically proximate and near-contact to and facing the planar working surface and being associated with a LNCIM field-of-view (FOV) region on the planar working surface;
• arranging one or more visible light projectors, optically coupled to respective one or more source optical trains, located above the transparent substrate and directed to project visible light, in a defined wavelength range, toward the planar working surface of the transparent substrate;
• arranging one or more coherent illumination light sources, optically coupled to respective one or more source optical trains, located above the transparent substrate and directed to pass and emit illumination light, in a defined wavelength range in a near infrared wavelength range, from the one or more source optical trains toward the planar working surface of the transparent substrate;
• selectively turning ON the one or more illumination light sources optically coupled to the respective one or more source optical trains thereby preferentially passing and directing emitted electromagnetic radiation (coherent illumination light) in the defined wavelength range in the near infrared wavelength range to illuminate the working optical inspection region on the planar working surface;
• selectively turning ON the one or more visible light projectors thereby projecting light signals and dynamic image patterns on the planar working surface, the optical filters reducing an intensity of the light signals, projected from the projectors, that are outside of the defined wavelength range in the near infrared wavelength range and that can be incident on the face of the image sensors of the respective LNCIM's in the LNCIM array;
• receiving, by the image sensor of each LNCIM in the array while the coherent illumination light source is ON, light signals from each LNCIM FOV region associated with each respective image sensor of an LNCIM in the array, wherein received light signals from a micro-object disposed in a LNCIM FOV region on the planar working surface comprise a diffraction pattern received by the associated image sensor of an LNCIM in the array;
• capturing, by the image sensor of each LNCIM in the array, a LNCIM-captured image of the light signals received from the associated LNCIM FOV region on the planar working surface, wherein the LNCIM-captured image being associated with a LNCIM-captured image resolution;
• detecting at least one diffraction pattern in the LNCIM-captured image associated with an LNCIM FOV region on the planar working surface, the at least one diffraction pattern corresponding to at least one micro-object disposed in the LNCIM FOV region;
• performing image processing of the diffraction pattern thereby determining and identifying at least one of a type, location, centroid, horizontal orientation, or vertical orientation, of the at least one micro-object;
• and
• generating, based on the determining and identifying, captured-image data associated with the identified at least one of a location, horizontal orientation, vertical orientation, centroid, or type, of the at least one micro-object disposed in the LNCIM FOV region, for providing feedback including the captured-image data to a microassembler system in a micro-assembly process.