Apparatus and method for measuring surface topography of an object
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsPhilip Robert LeBlanc, Vitor Marino Schneider, James Patrick Trice
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for measuring surface topography of an object includes an optical arrangement capable of directing a first light beam at a surface of the object, providing a second light beam coherent with and spatially phase-shifted relative to the first light beam, and generating an interference beam from the second light beam and a reflection of the first light beam from the surface of the object. The apparatus further includes at least one line scan sensor for detecting and measuring the interference beam.
Claims20
An apparatus for measuring surface topography of an object, comprising:
- an optical arrangement capable of (i) directing a first light beam at a surface of the object, (ii) providing a second light beam coherent with and spatially phase-shifted relative to the first light beam, and (iii) generating an interference beam from the second light beam and a reflection of the first light beam from the surface of the object;
- and
- at least one line scan sensor for detecting and measuring the interference beam.
A method of measuring surface topography of an object, comprising:
- directing a first light beam at a surface of the object;
- providing a second light beam coherent with and spatially phase-shifted relative to the first light beam;
- producing an interference beam from the second light beam and a reflection of the first light beam from the surface of the object;
- and
- detecting and measuring the interference beam using at least one line scan sensor.
The method of claim 16, wherein detecting and measuring the interference beam comprises passing the interference beam through a spatial phase splitter which interrogates the interference beam at different phase delays.
A method of measuring surface topography of an object, comprising:
- directing a first light beam at the surface of the object;
- providing a second light beam coherent with and spatially phase-shifted relative to the first light beam;
- producing an interference beam from the second light beam and a reflection of the first light beam from the surface of the object;
- making multiple copies of the interference beam;
- passing each copy of the interference beam through one of a plurality of spatial phase splitters;
- and
- detecting and measuring the copies of the interference beam using a plurality of line scan sensors associated with the plurality of spatial phase splitters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.