Method and apparatus for surface effect characterization
US6226085A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 26, 1998 |
| Grant date | May 1, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 26, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01N21/55
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A method and system to measure surface characteristics of a specimen. One implementation involves receiving at a receiver optical radiation reflected or scattered from a specimen, the optical radiation including specular components that are spatially encoded by wavelength according to chromatic aberration of the receiver. A measure of surface characteristics is then provided by processing a signal representing the received optical radiation which includes the specular components that are spatially encoded by wavelength according to chromatic aberration. The invention may be implemented with an integrating sphere, in either SCE or SCI mode, and both color and surface effects of a specimen can be measured simultaneously using a single spectrophotometric instrument. In an alternative embodiment, the size of a port opposite a receiver is varied, and for each of a plurality of port sizes, the receiver receives a corresponding optical radiation signal representing optical radiation reflected by the sample. These optical radiation signals are processed to provide a measure of the specimen surface characteristics.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.