Patent · US Expired

Interferometric measurement of surfaces with diffractive optics and planar wavefront imaging

US5909281A · kind A · utility

2Cited by
13References
19Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJun 30, 1997
Grant dateJun 1, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 30, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01B11/2441
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An interferometer (10) employs diffractive optics (30 and 40) for measuring errors in test surfaces (14) that differ from planes and spheres. A beam of light (28) having a planar shape is separated into two portions (32 and 34). One of the diffractive optics (30) can be used to reshape the second portion (34) of a beam of light (28) into a non-planar shape along a path of grazing incidence to the test surface (14), and the other diffractive optic (40) can be used to further reshape the second portion (34) back into a planar shape in common with the first portion (32) of the beam of light (28). The two planar beam portions (32 and 34) are recombined to produce an interference pattern (44) representing the errors in the test surface (14).

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