Lensless near-contact imaging system for micro assembly

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

• an array of lensless near-contact image-capture modules (LNCIM), each module including a high pixel-count large-format image sensor arranged vertically close to and facing the planar working surface and defining a respective module field-of-view region thereon;
• one or more illumination light sources optically coupled to respective source optical trains and disposed on an opposite side of the transparent substrate from the array of lensless near-contact image-capture modules, the one or more illumination light sources configured to emit and direct coherent light in a defined near-infrared wavelength range through the transparent substrate to illuminate the module field-of-view regions;
• a control unit configured to selectively activate the one or more illumination light sources;
• and
• an image processing unit configured to:
• receive, from each image sensor while the one or more illumination light sources are activated, a captured image of light signals from a micro-object disposed in the respective module field-of-view region;
• detect at least one diffraction pattern in the captured image;
• compare the detected at least one diffraction pattern to stored diffraction pattern models;
• and
• determine at least one of a type, a location, a centroid, a horizontal orientation, or a vertical orientation of the micro-object based on the comparing;
• and
• a communication interface configured to transmit captured-image data, including the determined at least one of type, location, centroid, horizontal orientation, or vertical orientation of the micro-object, to the microassembler system.

A machine vision system for inspecting micro-objects on a planar working surface, the system comprising:

• an array of image-capture modules positioned adjacent to and facing the planar working surface, each image-capture module defining a respective field-of-view region on the planar working surface;
• at least one light source arranged to emit light toward the planar working surface;
• and
• processing circuitry configured to:
• activate the at least one light source;
• receive image data from each image-capture module while the at least one light source is activated;
• detect, in the received image data, one or more diffraction patterns associated with one or more micro-objects disposed in the respective module field-of-view region;
• compare the detected one or more diffraction patterns associated with the one or more micro-objects to stored diffraction pattern models related to the one or more micro-objects;
• determine at least one of a type or location of at least one of the one or more micro-objects based on the comparing;
• and
• generate data comprising the determined information for output to a communication interface.