A white light confocal optical measurement device capable of detecting abnormalities in a received light waveform; the optical measurement device includes: a light source; an optical system; a light receiving unit; and a processor configured to compute the distance from the optical system to the measurement object on the basis of a received light intensity of the wavelength components received in the light receiving unit.

The processor compares a received light intensity of a wavelength component to a reference value for the wavelength component for a plurality of wavelength components in a waveform representing the light received, and detects an abnormality in the received light waveform when the amount of change in the received light intensity compared to the reference value therefor is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold for any wavelength component in the plurality of wavelength components.

A method for programming a three-dimensional (3D) workpiece scan path for a metrology system comprising a 3D motion control system, a first type of Z-height sensing system, and a second type of Z-height sensing system that provides less precise surface Z-height measurements over a broader Z-height measuring range. The method comprises: placing a representative workpiece on a stage of the metrology system, defining at least a first workpiece scan path segment for the representative workpiece, determining preliminary actual surface Z-height measurements along the first workpiece scan path segment, and determining a precise 3D scan path for moving the first type of Z-height sensing system to perform precise surface Z-height measurements. The precise 3D scan path is based on the determined preliminary actual surface Z-height measurements. The precise 3D scan path may be used for performing precise surface Z-height measurements or stored to be used in an inspection program.

A confocal chromatic device for inspecting the surface of an object such as a wafer, including a plurality of optical measurement channels with collection apertures arranged for collecting the light reflected by the object through a chromatic lens at a plurality of measurement points, the plurality of optical measurement channels including optical measurement channels with an intensity detector for measuring a total intensity of the collected light. A method is also provided for inspecting the surface of an object such as a wafer including tridimensional structures.

Provided is a chromatic confocal sensor including: a first light source that emits measurement light including a plurality of light beams having different wavelengths; a second light source that emits a visible light beam having a predetermined wavelength; an optical head that causes incident light to be converged at a focal position corresponding to a wavelength of the incident light and outputs reflection light reflected by an object to be measured at the focal position; a position calculation section that calculates a position of the object to be measured on the basis of the reflection light output by the optical head; and a switching section that selectively switches between a first operation in which only the measurement light enters the optical head and a second operation in which at least the visible light beam enters the optical head.

The present invention relates to a method and an assembly for chromatic confocal spectral interferometery, in particular also for spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT) using multi-spectral light. A multiple (e.g. two, three, four, etc.) axial splitting of foci in the interferometric object arm is performed using a multifocal (e.g. bifocal, trifocal, quattro-focal, etc.) optical component, forming thereby at least two, three or even several groups of chromatically split foci in the depth direction. The multifocal optical component is made of a diffractive optical element (712) and a Schwarzschild objective (5). At least two, three, four or even more differently colored foci of different groups of foci coincide in at least one confocal point in the object space of the setup. Thus, at least two, three or even more spectral wavelets are formed in the case of optical scanning of an object measurement point and spectral detection in the wavenumber domain, which wavelets are at least slightly spectrally separated from each other. This results in a significant increase in the optical primary data in the wavenumber domain and reduces the trade-off of the chromatic confocal spectral interferometry between axial measurement range and depth resolution. From the detected data, it is possible to calculate tan (alpha) as the quotient of the absolute phase shift delta_phi and the associated wavenumber difference delta_k, the Fourier transform over the spectral data, in order to respectively determine the optical path difference.

A part program generating device includes a CAD data memory storing CAD data of a work piece, a measurement condition definer receiving an input operation performed by a user and defining a measurement procedure, and a part program generator converting the measurement procedure defined by the measurement condition definer into a part program language. The measurement condition definer provides the user with, as a graphical user interface, an editing window capable of editing the measurement procedure in an editing language and a command icon providing a command to be used for defining the measurement procedure as an icon. The command icon includes a circumvention move command icon instructing to overcome a barrier when displacing a sensor from a start point to a target point.

Described herein is a detector (110) for determining a position of at least one object (112). The detector (110) includes: at least one transfer device (114) with chromatic aberration; at least one aperture element (118), wherein the aperture element (118) is configured to block edge components of a light beam (120) propagating from the object (112) to the detector (110) and having passed the transfer device (114); at least one first optical sensor (126) positioned in a direction of propagation of the light beam (120) behind the aperture element (118); and at least one second optical sensor (128), wherein the second optical sensor (128) is configured to determine at least one second intensity information of the edge components of the light beam (120).

A measuring apparatus includes a holding unit and a measuring unit. The measuring unit includes a first optical fiber for transmitting light emitted from a light source, a branching member for branching the light transmitted through the first optical fiber to at least two measuring optical fibers, a plurality of heads including respective beam condensers for converging the light branched by the branching member onto a measurand, a shutter device for shifting timings of application of the light applied from the heads to the measurand, a second optical fiber branched from the branching member and transmitting returning light reflected from the measurand, a spectroscopic unit having a light detector for detecting the returning light, and a controller for controlling the shutter device to control the timings of application of the light applied from the heads to the measurand and controlling the light detector to detect the returning light individually.

A digital sensor for pre-warning of multistage breakage-triggered deformation threshold includes first tension rods, second tension rods, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip, and a brittle fracture module, where the first tension rods as well as the second tension rods are respectively fixedly connected to two points to be measured on a tension member, and the first tension rods and the second tension rods can move reversely with deformation of the tension members; the RFID chip is fixedly arranged on the first tension rods; the brittle fracture module includes a bottom plate and a plurality of resistors, where two ends of the bottom plate are fixed to the first tension rods and the second tension rods, and the plurality of resistors forming a lumped parallel circuit are parallelly arranged on the bottom plate; the RFID chip is connected to two ends of the lumped parallel circuit.

An apparatus for dental imaging comprises a light source for generating light, an optics system for focusing the light, and a probe head. The light source, the optics system and the probe head are arranged such that the light passes through the optics system, passes through the probe head, and exits the probe head. The optics system is configured such that, upon entering the probe head, an outermost chief ray of the light with respect to an optical axis of the optics system is divergent to the optical axis and an outermost marginal ray of the light with respect to the optical axis is parallel or divergent to the optical axis.