Confocal system
AssigneeYokogawa Electric Corporation
InventorTakeo Tanaami
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A confocal system comprising a laser light source; a confocal scanner that emits an output light beam from the light source after passing through apertures; an optical microscope that focuses light passed through the apertures onto a sample; a detector that obtains cross sectional images of the sample by photographing the return light reflected from the sample; and a controller that determines focal positions of the sample using light intensity at cross sectional images based on a focal position light intensity characteristic, whereby focal postions and three dimensional shape of the sample is obtained without scanning in the direction of the optical axis.
Claims10
In a confocal system comprising:
- a laser light source;
- a confocal scanner having a plurality of apertures through which output light beam from said laser light source is passed;
- an optical microscope to focus output light beam through said apertures onto a sample;
- detector means for obtaining a cross sectional image of said sample by photographing light beams reflected by said sample;
- and
- controller means for determining focal positions of said sample using light intensity at said cross sectional image based on a focal position light intensity characteristic, the improvement comprising:
- said controller means comprises:
- means for storing at least one characteristic curve representing light intensity characteristic points as measured against focal position points of the surface of said sample;
- means for receiving signals from said detector means representing the light intensity characteristic of said surface of said sample;
- and
- means for processing the signal from the detector means in terms of the stored characteristic curve to determine the cross sectional image of the sample;
- whereby the shape of the sample is measured without necessity of moving the focus along the focus direction of measurement.
A measuring method using a confocal system comprising:
- a laser light source;
- a confocal scanner having a plurality of apertures through which output light beam from said laser light source is passed;
- an optical microscope to focus output light beam through said apertures onto a sample;
- detector means for obtaining a cross sectional image of said sample by photographing light beams reflected by said sample;
- and
- controller means for determining focal positions of said sample using light intensity at said cross sectional image based on a focal position light intensity characteristic, said method comprising the steps of:
- storing at least one characteristic curve representing light intensity characteristic points as measured against focal position points of the surface of said sample;
- receiving signals from said detector means representing the light intensity characteristic of said surface of said sample;
- and
- processing the signal from the detector means in terms of the stored characteristic curve to determine the cross sectional image of the sample;
- whereby the shape of the sample is measured without necessity of moving the focus along the focus direction of measurement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.