METHOD FOR OPTICAL MONITORING AND/OR DETERMINATION OF PROPERTIES OF SAMPLE

Abstract

In the method for optical monitoring and/or determination of properties on samples, monochromatic electromagnetic radiation with a predetermined wavelength is sequentially directed from several radiation sources onto a sample influenced by an electronic evaluation unit. The respective intensity specific to the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation scattered and/or reflected by the sample is detected by at least one detector and fed to the electronic evaluation unit for spectrally resolved evaluation in order to use it to monitor and/or determine properties of the respective sample.

Claims

1-12 (canceled)

13. A method for optical monitoring and/or determination of properties of samples, comprising: monochromatic electromagnetic radiation with a predetermined wavelength from several radiation sources is sequentially directed onto a sample under the influence of an electronic evaluation unit, and the respective intensity specific to the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation scattered and/or reflected by the sample is detected by at least one detector and fed to the electronic evaluation unit for spectrally resolved evaluation in order to use it to monitor and/or determine properties of the respective sample.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in a wavelength range 250 nm to 2500 nm are used.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in a wavelength range 1000 nm to 2500 nm are used.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the radiation sources is guided towards the sample via optical fibers.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the radiation sources is directed towards the sample by an element homogenizing the electromagnetic radiation.

18. The method according to claim 13, wherein the radiation sources and/or an electromagnetic radiation homogenizing element is/are used, which is/are equipped with thermal monitoring and a device designed for thermal management.

19. The method according to claim 13, wherein the electromagnetic radiation is emitted from a plurality of radiation sources and detected by a plurality of detectors, wherein the radiation sources and/or detectors are arranged in a row or row and column arrangement.

20. The method according to claim 13, wherein monochromatic electromagnetic radiation with a half width of ≤50 nm is emitted by the radiation sources.

21. The method according to claim 13, wherein the sample and the detector(s) are moved relative to each other during emission and detection.

22. The method according to claim 13, wherein in order to reduce the amount of data, a principal component analysis or other unsupervised-learning method compresses the spectral detected intensity measurement values such that only the spectral intensity values corresponding to a principal part of the variance are stored.

23. The method according to claim 13, wherein the spectrally acquired intensity measurement values or individual spectral channels are reduced by video compression methods.

24. The method according to claim 13, wherein processing of the raw data can be performed in FPGAs.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0035] The invention is to be explained in more detail below by way of example.

[0036] In the drawings:

[0037] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a measurement setup that can be used to carry out the method according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0038] In this example, five monochromatic electromagnetic radiation emitting radiation sources 1 in the form of high-power LEDs are present, which are sequentially activated by an electronic evaluation and control unit not shown, so that in a time interval only monochromatic electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength λ.sub.i is emitted and directed towards a sample 2 via an optical fiber 4 opening into a single optical fiber 4′ by an element 5 homogenizing the electromagnetic radiation.

[0039] Electromagnetic radiation scattered or reflected by the sample 2 is incident on a projection lens 7 through an aperture 6, and an image of scattered or reflected electromagnetic radiation whose intensity is detected by the detector 3 is formed.

[0040] The recorded intensity measurement values at a specific wavelength λ.sub.i, which are measured within the individual time intervals in which monochromatic electromagnetic radiation of a respective wavelength λ.sub.i are assigned to the respective wavelength λ.sub.i are fed to the electronic evaluation and control unit and can be taken into account there for a spectral analysis for monitoring and/or for determining properties of the respective sample 2.