A Picometre-Level Resolution Test Method without Nonlinearity for Heterodyne Interferometer Measurement Electronics

Abstract

The wide application of displacement measurement in high-precision equipment production and high-precision metrology is placing increasing pressure on the resolution of heterodyne interferometers. However, as the core component of an interferometer, since measurement electronics includes the cross-physical process of photoelectric conversion, its resolution is rarely evaluated, either on an individual level or as a whole. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a picometer resolution test method for measurement electronics, that uses intensity modulation signals based on an AOM to replace the beat frequency interference signals, and an ordinary commercial guide rail to equivalently generate the pm-level displacement of the heterodyne interferometer under laboratory conditions. Based on the detailed analysis of the type of noise in the test device, the correlation between the light intensity and the nonlinear error was established, and nonlinearity was suppressed to 10% of the original level. Furthermore, this test method allows one to perform a 0.1 mrad phase step test at 1 MHz signal frequency, equivalent to a 2.5 pm resolution test in a double-pass heterodyne interferometer. Simultaneously, it can be directly applied to the resolution test for measurement electronics with a center frequency in the range of 1 MHz to 20 MHz.