Body including surface having concentric annular portions
First Claim
1. A confocal inspection system, comprising:
- an illuminator that produces light;
a confocal assembly that collimates light reflected from a specified plane to form a collimated first beam propagating along a central axis;
an annular surface positioned to receive the first collimated beam, the annular surface including a plurality of concentric arcuate portions;
wherein the plurality of concentric arcuate portions impart non-focusing angular redirections to respective portions of the first collimated beam incident thereon to produce a plurality of second collimated beams, each of the plurality of second collimated beams corresponding to a respective concentric arcuate portion; and
a focusing lens having a front focal plane coincident with the annular surface, the focusing lens positioned to focus the plurality of second collimated beams onto a detector plane.
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Abstract
A confocal inspection system can analyze light collected from a sample. For absorptive samples, it can be desirable to bin the collected light as a function of optical path length traversed in the sample. To perform this binning, the optical system can direct the collected light to a body having a surface that includes concentric annular portions that impart unique non-focusing angular redirections to respective portions of the collected light. In some examples, the annular portions are planar and have respective surface normals that are uniquely angled with respect to one another. In other examples, the annular portions are planar and parallel, and include respective zero-power, blazed diffraction gratings having unique combinations of blaze angle and blaze orientation with respect to one another. Light from each annular portion can be focused onto a respective lateral location at a detector plane.
28 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A confocal inspection system, comprising:
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an illuminator that produces light; a confocal assembly that collimates light reflected from a specified plane to form a collimated first beam propagating along a central axis; an annular surface positioned to receive the first collimated beam, the annular surface including a plurality of concentric arcuate portions; wherein the plurality of concentric arcuate portions impart non-focusing angular redirections to respective portions of the first collimated beam incident thereon to produce a plurality of second collimated beams, each of the plurality of second collimated beams corresponding to a respective concentric arcuate portion; and a focusing lens having a front focal plane coincident with the annular surface, the focusing lens positioned to focus the plurality of second collimated beams onto a detector plane. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for confocally inspecting a sample, comprising:
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producing light using an illuminator; collimating light reflected from a specified plane to form a first collimated beam propagating along a central axis; separating the first collimated beam into a plurality of annular zones, the annular zones being concentric with the central axis and having circular inner and outer boundaries when viewed along the central axis; imparting unique non-focusing angular redirections to the respective annular zones in the first collimated beam to form a plurality of second collimated beams, each of the plurality of second collimated beams corresponding to a respective annular zone; and focusing the plurality of second collimated beams onto a detector plane, wherein light in each annular zone is focused onto a respective lateral location at the detector plane. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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Specification