A thickness measurement device includes a chassis provided with an installation surface on which a measurement object is installed and a facing surface disposed parallel to the installation surface with a gap therebetween. A distance measurement instrument measures the distances to objects in two opposite directions. A movement mechanism positions the distance measurement instrument at a measurement point between the installation surface and the facing surface such that the measurement directions thereof are aligned with the direction along the gap between the installation surface and the facing surface. An arithmetic unit calculates the difference between the total of the distances measured at the measurement point in a state in which the measurement object is not installed on the installation surface and the total of the distances measured in a state in which the measurement object is installed on the installation surface.

An inspection system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the inspection system includes an interferometer sub-system configured to acquire an interferogram of a sample. The inspection system may further include a controller communicatively coupled to the interferometer sub-system. The controller is configured to: receive the interferogram from the interferometer sub-system; generate a phase map of the sample based on the received interferogram, wherein the phase map includes a plurality of pixels; select a sub-set of pixels of the plurality of pixels of the phase map to be used for phase unwrapping procedures; perform one or more phase unwrapping procedures on the sub-set of pixels of the phase map to generate an unwrapped phase map; and generate a surface height map of the sample based on the unwrapped phase map.

A pattern accuracy detecting apparatus includes a stage for supporting a substrate, an optical warpage detecting unit that measures a shape of a substrate disposed on the stage, an optical pattern detection unit that detects a position of a pattern on the substrate, and a processing unit that corrects the detected pattern position based on the measured shape of the substrate.

A dual-optical displacement sensor system includes a scanner including a first and second scanner head including optical displacement sensors providing a first and second beam having a first optical axis (OA) and a second OA. A computing device or programmed circuit is coupled to receive time versus position data from measurements involving alignment target(s) including at least one knife edge pair including a first and second knife edge oriented in a first plane of the alignment target that is essentially perpendicular to the OAs positioned between the scanner heads for interacting with the beams, and implement at least one equation to analyze the data for determining a degree of alignment of the first and second OA. Using the degree of alignment, an algorithm is for automatic alignment of the OAs or assist instructions for a user alignment of the OAs that provides guiding steps for the user for the alignment.

A device is proposed for the contactless three-dimensional inspection of a circular, mechanical component (20) with toothing having a main axis of rotation, comprising: means for scanning the teeth, comprising at least one first pair of laser measurement modules (12A, 12B) and means for the rotational driving (11), about the main axis, of said component relative to the laser measurement modules; means for rebuilding a virtual three-dimensional representation of the component using data coming from said scanning means; means of dimensional inspection using the three-dimensional representation; each pair of modules comprising a first module oriented towards a first face of a tooth and a second module oriented towards a second face of a tooth; the modules being oriented relative to the component so that during a rotation of the component, the scanning means scan the first and second faces of each tooth throughout their thickness and depth.

A method for measuring the thickness of a specimen, according to an embodiment, can measure the thickness of a specimen having multiple layers in a contactless and non-destructive manner. In addition, when the refractive indexes of materials forming the respective layers are already known, the thicknesses of the respective layers can be integrally measured through differences in reflection times of terahertz waves with respect to the respective layers of the specimen, thereby measuring the thickness of the specimen, such that the time taken for measuring the thickness of the specimen can be reduced. Furthermore, when the refractive indexes of the materials forming the respective layers are not known, the refractive indexes of the respective layers can be measured through differences in transmission times and reflection times of terahertz waves with respect to the respective layers of the specimen, and at the same time, the thicknesses of the respective layers can be measured through differences in transmission times or reflection times of terahertz waves with respect to the respective layers of the specimen, so that the thickness of various specimens can be measured. As such, the present invention has a wide range of applications.

An apparatus and associated methods for measuring thickness and velocity of flat moving materials utilizing high frequency radar technologies. Two identical radar-based systems for measuring absolute distances between the source of the radar-generated electromagnetic wave and each surface of a flat sheet material is used to determine the thickness of that material as a relative distance. A pair of high frequency radars situated at different locations used to measure the delay time between the occurrences of fingerprint-like unevenness on the moving flat sheet of material to determine the linear velocity of the moving material sheet.

A dual-optical displacement sensor system includes a scanner including a first and second scanner head including optical displacement sensors providing a first and second beam having a first optical axis (OA) and a second OA. A computing device or programmed circuit is coupled to receive time versus position data from measurements involving alignment target(s) including at least one knife edge pair including a first and second knife edge oriented in a first plane of the alignment target that is essentially perpendicular to the OAs positioned between the scanner heads for interacting with the beams, and implement at least one equation to analyze the data for determining a degree of alignment of the first and second OA. Using the degree of alignment, an algorithm is for automatic alignment of the OAs or assist instructions for a user alignment of the OAs that provides guiding steps for the user for the alignment.

The present disclosure is directed to a metrology system having 3-dimensional sensors for thickness measurements of semiconductor elements, and methods for taking the thickness measurements. In an aspect, the 3-dimensional sensor may be a single or dual 3-dimensional profiler that may scan across the top and bottom surfaces of an element to obtain a thickness measurement. In another aspect, the method may be used to measure a gap between elements that have assembled together.

We describe apparatus for measurement of thickness and topography of slabs of materials employing probes with filters using polarization maintaining fibers.