G01N2021/8864

SURFACE ANALYSIS OF GEMSTONES
20230228690 · 2023-07-20 ·

Systems and methods here may be used for capturing and analyzing reflectance images of facets on a gemstone under particular lighting and camera setups to automatically generate a clarity grade and/or surface polish grade for the gemstone.

Object surface evaluation method, evaluation device, workpiece machining method using said evaluation method, and machine tool

A parameter indicating a surface property of an object surface is plotted on the horizontal axis, a normal direction change rate of the shape of the object surface is plotted on the vertical axis, the minimum normal direction change rate visible to a person is associated with the parameter indicating the surface property of the object surface to create a visible area map, the relationship between the parameter indicating the surface property of a machining surface of a workpiece, and the maximum value of the normal direction change rate of the shape of the machining surface of the workpiece is displayed on the visible area map, and the object surface is evaluated.

TECHNOLOGY CONFIGURED TO ENABLE FAULT DETECTION AND CONDITION ASSESSMENT OF UNDERGROUND STORMWATER AND SEWER PIPES
20230101112 · 2023-03-30 ·

The present disclosure relates to technology configured to enable fault detection and condition assessment of underground stormwater and sewer pipes. Embodiments of the present disclosure have been developed to allow automated processing of video captured by pipe inspection robots and the like thereby to identify and categorize artefacts in pipes.

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR INSPECTING CONTAINERS WHICH ARE AT LEAST PARTIALLY TRANSPARENT TO A PREDETERMINED ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
20220349831 · 2022-11-03 ·

An apparatus for inspecting containers includes a rotation device which is adapted to rotate the container about the axis of symmetry; a camera sensitive to said predetermined electromagnetic radiation and with the container located in the field of view thereof; a processing unit to control the rotation device to move the container at a first angular speed constant for a first time period; acquiring at least a first and a second series of images of a portion of the container in a rotation thereof through 360′; to identify defective areas having at least one characteristic different from the characteristics of adjacent areas, generating first and second maps of the defective areas; to compare the position of the defective areas of the maps; to establish that first impurities are present in the container or in the liquid contained in the container.

Inspection of a semiconductor specimen

There is provided a system and method of inspecting a specimen. The method includes obtaining a first image of an inspection area of a die of a semiconductor specimen and a group of reference images corresponding to a group of candidate reference units, obtaining a second image informative of one or more partitions of the inspection area respectively associated with one or more inspection algorithms, for each given pixel of the first image, determining location of one or more reference pixels thereof based on information of the second image, selecting, from the group of candidate reference units, one or more specific reference units actually required for inspecting the inspection area based on the determined location, and using one or more reference images corresponding to the selected reference units to inspect the first image, thereby providing an inspection result of the inspection area.

METHOD FOR MEASURING DIC DEFECT SHAPE ON SILICON WAFER AND POLISHING METHOD
20230125000 · 2023-04-20 · ·

A method for measuring a DIC defect shape on a silicon wafer, the method including steps of: detecting a DIC defect on a main surface of the silicon wafer with a particle counter; specifying position coordinates of the detected DIC defect; and measuring a shape including at least a height or depth of the detected DIC defect by utilizing the specified position coordinates according to phase-shifting interferometry. The method for measuring a DIC defect shape by which the shape including size of DIC defect generated on a main surface of a silicon wafer is easily and precisely measured.

WAFER MEASURING METHOD AND DEVICE, AND COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM
20220327682 · 2022-10-13 · ·

The present application relates to the field of semiconductors, and provides a wafer measuring method, a wafer measuring device, and a computer-readable storage medium. The method includes: acquiring an image to be measured of a wafer to be measured and a preset measurement point, and acquiring an abnormal region in the image to be measured; acquiring a target measurement point outside the abnormal region based on the abnormal region if the preset measurement point is in the abnormal region; and measuring the wafer to be measured via the target measurement point. Compared with the prior art, the wafer measuring method and device, and the computer-readable storage medium according to some embodiments of the present application have an advantage in improving accuracy of a wafer measurement result.

Marking inspection device, marking inspection method and article inspection apparatus
11680911 · 2023-06-20 · ·

A marking region image is obtained by cutting out the part corresponding to a marking region from an article image obtained by imaging an article to be inspected. Then, whether or not the marking is properly provided is determined by performing a character recognition of a marking part for a marking region image. Further, an image of an article having no marking and no defect is stored as a reference image, whereas a marking periphery image obtained by removing the image of the marking part from the marking region image is compared to the reference image. By that comparison, whether or not any defect is included in the marking peripheral part of the marking region except the marking part is determined.

Multi-parameter inspection apparatus for monitoring of additive manufacturing parts
11668658 · 2023-06-06 ·

Additive manufacturing, such as laser sintering or melting of additive layers, can produce parts rapidly at small volume and in a factory setting. To ensure the additive manufactured parts are of high quality, a real-time non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique is required to detect defects while they are being manufactured. The present invention describes an in-situ (real-time) inspection unit that can be added to an existing additive manufacturing (AM) tool, such as an FDM (fused deposition modeling) machine, or a direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) machine, providing real-time information about the part quality, and detecting flaws as they occur. The information provided by this unit is used to a) qualify the part as it is being made, and b) to provide feedback to the AM tool for correction, or to stop the process if the part will not meet the quality, thus saving time, energy and reduce material loss.

Defect Inspection Device, Display Device, and Defect Classification Device

A defect inspection device is provided with an illumination optical system that irradiates light or an electron beam onto a sample, a detector that detects a signal obtained from the sample through the irradiation of the light or electron beam, a defect detection unit that detects a defect candidate on the sample through the comparison of a signal output by the detector and a prescribed threshold, and a display unit that displays a setting screen for setting the threshold. The setting screen is a two-dimensional distribution map that represents the distribution of the defect candidates in a three dimensional feature space having three features as the axes thereof and includes the axes of the three features and the threshold, which is represented in one dimension.