Chromatic confocal spectral interferometry (CCSI) is a hybrid measurement technique that integrates the principles of spectral interferometry and chromatic confocal microscopy. This innovative approach enables scanning-free acquisition of axial dimensions while leveraging interferometric methods to enhance depth accuracy. This feature allows the CCSI signal to be processed using both peak extraction and evaluation of the interferometric optical path length difference. The phase information offers a decreased measurement uncertainty, making it a commonly used approach in existing studies. Methods such as Fourier transform (FT) and wavelet transform (WT) are frequently employed for this purpose. In this paper, we present a signal processing approach based on the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT). Through simulations and experiments, we compare HHT with Fourier transform (FT) and wavelet transform (WT), demonstrating its stability, noise resistance, and effectiveness in phase extraction for CCSI measurement signals. Additionally, we leverage the characteristics of CCSI signals and the time-frequency analysis capabilities of HHT to address the direction ambiguity problem in white light interferometry.
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