Provided is a system for range detection including at least one beam source arrangement configured to provide illumination of certain coherence length, an optical arrangement, and a detection arrangement including at least one detector unit.

A low-coherence Fizeau interferometer includes a first beamsplitter, a test arm and a reference arm, the first beamsplitter splits light into a first portion of light directed to the test arm and a second portion of light directed to the reference arm, and an imaging arm comprising a first collimating lens, a flat reference surface, and a test element. The test arm focuses the first portion of light at a first focal point, such that a virtual image of the first focal point appears at a focal point of the test element. The reference arm focuses the second portion of light at a second focal point, the first collimating lens collimates the light that then reflects off the flat reference surface. The second beamsplitter directs the first portion of light to reflect off the test element. The reflection of the first and second portion of light form an interference pattern.

A low-coherence Fizeau interferometer includes a first beamsplitter, a test arm and a reference arm, the first beamsplitter splits light into a first portion of light directed to the test arm and a second portion of light directed to the reference arm, and an imaging arm comprising a first collimating lens, a flat reference surface, and a test element. The test arm focuses the first portion of light at a first focal point, such that a virtual image of the first focal point appears at a focal point of the test element. The reference arm focuses the second portion of light at a second focal point, the first collimating lens collimates the light that then reflects off the flat reference surface. The second beamsplitter directs the first portion of light to reflect off the test element. The reflection of the first and second portion of light form an interference pattern.

A high backscattering optical fiber comprising a perturbed segment in which the perturbed segment reflects a relative power such that the optical fiber has an effective index of n.sub.eff, a numerical aperture of NA, a scatter of R.sub.p.fwdarw.r.sup.(fiber) that varies axially along the optical fiber, a total transmission loss of α.sub.fiber, an in-band range greater than one nanometer (1 nm), and a figure of merit (FOM) in the in-band range. The FOM being defined as:

[00001]$FOM=\frac{R_{p.fwdarw.r}^{\left(\mathrm{fiber}\right)}}{{{\alpha }_{\mathrm{fiber}}\left(\frac{\mathrm{NA}}{2n_{\mathrm{eff}}}\right)}^2}.$

A medical instrument is described that includes an optical source, an optical fiber, and a waveguide patterned upon a substrate. The optical fiber receives radiation from the optical source and includes a first segment and a second segment. The second segment is rotated about an optical axis relative to the first segment. The waveguide receives radiation from the optical source and guides a beam of radiation. The waveguide includes a first waveguide segment designed to impart a first differential group delay on the beam of radiation and a second waveguide segment designed to impart a second differential group delay on the beam of radiation. A sum of the first differential group delay and the second differential group delay is substantially zero.

An apparatus, system, and method combining a liquid transfer device with a non-contact liquid fill height sensor to improve the reliability, accuracy, and precision of liquid transfers and to determine liquid fill height and liquid volume in a container before or after liquid transfers.

Systems and methods for measuring a surface topography of a semiconductor chip are disclosed. A disclosed system comprises a light source configured to provide low coherent light to a first beam splitter, a scanner configured to use the low coherent light reflected from the first beam splitter to scan positions on a surface of a semiconductor chip, a second beam splitter configured to receive reflected signals from the positions on the surface of the semiconductor chip, a detector configured to detect interference signals from a first output of the second beam splitter, wherein each of the interference signals corresponds to a respective one of the positions, and a spectrometer configured to detect spectrum signals from a second output of the second beam splitter, wherein each of the spectrum signals corresponds to the respective one of the positions.

A method for optical inspection includes illuminating a patterned polymer layer on a semiconductor wafer with optical radiation over a range of infrared wavelengths, measuring spectral properties of the optical radiation reflected from multiple points on the patterned polymer layer over the range of infrared wavelengths, and based on the measured spectral properties, computing a complex refractive index of the patterned polymer layer.

A system for sensing microbends and micro-deformations in three-dimensional space is based upon a distributed length optical fiber formed to include a group of offset cores disposed in a spiral configuration along the length of the fiber, each core including a fiber Bragg grating that exhibits the same Bragg wavelength. A micro-scale local deformation of the multicore fiber produces a local shift in the Bragg wavelength, where the use of multiple cores allows for a complete micro-scale modeling of the local deformation. Sequential probing of each core allows for optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) allows for reconstruction of a given three-dimensional shape, delineating location and size of various microbends and micro-deformations.

An optical fiber includes multiple optical waveguides configured in the fiber. An interferometric measurement system mitigates or compensates for the errors imposed by differences in a shape sensing optical fiber's response to temperature and strain. A 3-D shape and/or position are calculated from a set of distributed strain measurements acquired for a multi-core optical shape sensing fiber that compensates for these non-linear errors using one or more additional cores in the multicore fiber that react differently to temperature changes than the existing cores.