Patent · US Expired

Method and an apparatus for measuring a displacement between two objects and a method and an apparatus for measuring a gap distance between two objects

US5151754A · kind A · utility

103Cited by
4References
33Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 5, 1990
Grant dateSep 29, 1992
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 5, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG03F9/7023
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for measuring a displacement between two objects. Corresponding pairs of regions of the two objects each have at least one diffraction grating which generate two-dimensionally distributed diffracted light beams. These light beams are diffracted and caused to interfere with each other in the paired regions, whereby two-dimensionally distributed diffracted interference light beams are emitted. A light beam of a specific order is detected from each of these diffracted interference light beams, and is converted into a beat signal. The displacement is obtained in accordance with the phase difference between these beat signals.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.