High-precision Profilometer Research Articles

3D Measurement and Characterization of Ultra-precision Aspheric Surfaces

Aspheric surfaces have become widely used in various fields ranging from imaging systems to energy and biomedical applications. Although many research works have been conducted to address their manufacturing and measurement, there are still challenges in form characterization of aspheric surfaces considering a large number of data points. This paper presents a comparative study of 3D measurement and form characterization of an aspheric lens using tactile and optical single scanning probing systems. The design of the LNE high precision profilometer, traceable to standard references is presented. The measured surfaces are obtained from the aforementioned system. They are characterized with large number of data points for which a suitable process chain is deployed. The form characterization of the aspheric surfaces is based on surface fitting techniques by comparing the measured surface with the design surface. A comparative study of registration methods and non-linear Orthogonal Least-Squares fitting Methods is presented. Experimental results are analyzed and discussed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

Manufacturing Process Evolution Method of Neutron Ellipsoidal Mirror Simulation Using Measured Point-Set

Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) analysis using ellipsoidal neutron mirrors are highly demanded for basic researches of high tensile strength steel sheets, proteins and polymer materials. Although the mirror was conventionally assembled from multilayer neutron super mirrors deposited on ground and polished glass segments, it was difficult to align segmented mirrors with high accuracy and it took several months for the grinding and polishing process. An optimized manufacturing process is proposed utilizing optical function evaluation based on measured mirror surface profile. Optical aberration caused by surface form error and misalignment is evaluated by ray-tracing using mirror surface profile measured by non-contact high precision profilometer.

Comparison of tactile and chromatic confocal measurements of aspherical lenses for form metrology

Both contact and non-contact probes are often used in dimensional metrology applications, especially for roughness, form and surface profile measurements. To perform such kind of measurements with a nanometer level of accuracy, LNE (French National Metrology Institute (NMI)) has developed a high precision profilometer traceable to the SI meter definition. The architecture of the machine contains a short and stable metrology frame dissociated from the supporting frame. It perfectly respects Abbe principle. The metrology loop incorporates three Renishaw laser interferometers and is equipped either with a chromatic confocal probe or a tactile probe to achieve measurements at the nanometric level of uncertainty. The machine allows the in-situ calibration of the probes by means of a differential laser interferometer considered as a reference. In this paper, both the architecture and the operation of the LNE’s high precision profilometer are detailed. A brief comparison of the behavior of the chromatic confocal and tactile probes is presented. Optical and tactile scans of an aspherical surface are performed and the large number of data are processed using the L-BFGS (Limited memory-Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno) algorithm. Fitting results are compared with respect to the evaluated residual errors which reflect the form defects of the surface.

Setup of a high-precision profilometer and comparison of tactile and optical measurements of standards

Both optical and tactile probes are often used in dimensional metrology applications, especially for roughness, form, thickness and surface profile measurements. To perform such kinds of measurements with a nanometre-level of accuracy (∼30 nm), Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d’Essais (LNE) has developed a new high-precision machine. The architecture of the machine contains a short and stable metrology frame dissociated from the supporting frame. It perfectly respects the Abbe principle. The metrology loop supports reference laser interferometers and is equipped either with an optical probe or a tactile probe of nanometric resolution and linear residuals. The machine allows in situ calibration of the measuring optical and tactile probes by comparison to the laser interferometer measurements, considered as a reference. In this paper, both architecture and operation of the LNE's high-precision profilometer are detailed. A brief comparison of the behaviour (linear residuals) of the confocal chromatic and tactile probes is presented. Optical and tactile scanning of V-grooves artefacts with 75, 24, 7.5, 2.4, 0.75 and 0.24 µm depths are illustrated and discussed. In addition, a comparison between optical, tactile and atomic force microscopy measurements on a VLSI SHS 880-QC is also performed. Finally, a comparison of an optical and tactile scanning of optical aspherical lens with a polymer coating is presented and discussed.

A high precision profilometer based on vertical scanning microscopic interferometry

A profilometer used for 3 dimension measurement of micro-surface topography is presented. The instrument is based on the vertical scanning microscopic interferometry (VSMI). A Linnik type interference microscope is used and the interferograms which present changes of surface profile are recorded with a CCD camera. A developed nano-positioning work stage with an integrated optical grating displacement measuring system realizes the precise vertical scanning motion during profile measurement. By a white-light phase shifting algorithm of arbitrary step, frames of interferograms are processed by a computer to rebuild and evaluate the measured profile. Because of the specialty of VSMI, the profilometer is suitable for both smooth and rough surface measurement. It can also be used to measure curved surfaces, dimension of micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS), etc. The vertical resolution of the profilometer is 0.5 nm, and lateral resolution 0.5 μm.