Spectrum measurement apparatus and spectrum measurement method

• US 10,444,153 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2018
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Sang Kyu
• Primary Examiner(s): Bologna, Dominic J
• Application Number:
  US15/885,035
• Publication Number:
  US 20190033217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 622 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2003/1282 Spectrum tailoring
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2003/4418 Power spectrum
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/027 Control of working procedures of a spectrometer; Failure detection; Bandwidth calculation
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/10 Arrangements of light sources specially adapted for spectrometry or colorimetry
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/42 Absorption spectrometry; Double beam spectrometry; Flicker spectrometry; Reflection spectrometry beam switching arrangements G01J3/08
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/44 Raman spectrometry; Scattering spectrometry ; Fluorescence spectrometry
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/4412 Scattering spectrometry particle sizing by light scattering G01N15/0205; optical velocimetry of particles G01P5/20, G01P5/26
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/359 using near infrared light
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/4738 Diffuse reflection precedence is given to G01N21/55 - G01N21/57 if specular component is taken into consideration, e.g. also for testing fluids, fibrous materials
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/65 Raman scattering
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/66 electrically excited, e.g. electroluminescence

Abstract

A spectrum measurement apparatus includes: a plurality of light sources configured to emit light having different wavelengths to an object; a light detector configured to receive light, which is reflected or scattered from or transmitted through the object, and to measure an intensity of the received light; and a processor configured to determine a strength of an electric signal to be applied to at least one of the plurality of light sources by using one of the plurality of light sources, and by applying the electric signal having the determined strength to the plurality of light sources to obtain a spectrum of the object.

Claims

1. A spectrum measurement apparatus comprising:

a plurality of light sources configured to emit light having different wavelengths to an object;

a light detector configured to receive light, which is reflected or scattered from or transmitted through the object, and to measure an intensity of the received light; and

a processor configured to determine a strength of an electric signal to be applied to at least one of the plurality of light sources by using one of the plurality of light sources, and to obtain a spectrum of the object by applying the electric signal having the determined strength to the at least one of the plurality of light sources,

wherein the processor is further configured to select a light source, having a largest amount of light, among the plurality of light sources, and to determine the strength of the electric signal to be applied to the at least one of the plurality of light sources by using the selected light source.

2. The spectrum measurement apparatus of claim 1, wherein the light detector is further configured to amplify the received light according to a predetermined gain.

3. The spectrum measurement apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to, based on the measured intensity of the light detector that is obtained by applying the electric signal having various strengths to the selected light source, determine a range of the strength of the electric signal in which the light detector is not saturated, and determine a highest value in the range of the strength of the electric signal to be the strength of the electric signal to be applied to the at least one of the plurality of light sources.

4. The spectrum measurement apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to obtain the measured intensity of the light detector, which corresponds to each of the plurality of light sources, by applying the electric signal having the determined strength to each of the plurality of light sources, to obtain a light spectrum corresponding to each of the plurality of light sources, and to obtain the spectrum of the object based on the measured intensity and the light spectrum corresponding to each of the plurality of light sources.

5. The spectrum measurement apparatus of claim 4, wherein the light spectrum corresponding to each of the plurality of light sources is a spectrum of light emitted from each of the plurality of light sources when the electric signal having various strengths is applied to each of the plurality of light sources.

6. The spectrum measurement apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processor is further configured to obtain the light spectrum corresponding to each of the plurality of light sources from at least one of an internal database and an external database, or to obtain the light spectrum corresponding to each of the plurality of light sources by applying the electric signal having various strengths to each of the plurality of light sources and measuring the intensity of light emitted from each of the plurality of light sources.

7. The spectrum measurement apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a light amount adjuster configured to adjust the strength of the electric signal to be applied to the at least one of the plurality of light sources according to a control signal of the processor.

8. A spectrum measurement method of a spectrum measurement apparatus comprising a plurality of light sources and a light detector, the spectrum measurement method comprising:

determining a strength of an electric signal to be applied to at least one of the plurality of light sources by using one of the plurality of light sources; and

obtaining a spectrum of an object by applying the electric signal having the determined strength to the at least one of the plurality of light sources,

wherein the determining the strength of the electric signal to be applied to the at least one of the plurality of sources comprises selecting a light source, having a largest amount of light, among the plurality of light sources, and determining the strength of the electric signal to be applied to the at least one of the plurality of light sources by using the selected light source.

9. The spectrum measurement method of claim 8, wherein the determining the strength of the electric signal to be applied to the plurality of light sources further comprises:

emitting light to the object by applying the electric signal having various strengths to the selected light source, and measuring, by the light detector, an intensity of light reflected or scattered from or transmitted through the object;

based on the measured intensity, determining a range of the strength of the electric signal in which the light detector is not saturated; and

determining a highest value in the range of the strength of the electric signal to be the strength of the electric signal to be applied to the at least one of the plurality of light sources.

10. The spectrum measurement method of claim 8, wherein the obtaining the spectrum of the object comprises:

emitting light to the object by applying the electric signal having the determined strength to the at least one of the plurality of light sources, and measuring, by the light detector, an intensity of the light reflected or scattered from or transmitted through the object; and

obtaining the spectrum of the object by using the measured intensity and a light spectrum corresponding to each of the plurality of light sources.

11. The spectrum measurement method of claim 10, wherein the light spectrum corresponding to each of the plurality of light sources is a spectrum of light emitted from each of the plurality of light sources when the electric signal having various strengths is applied to each of the plurality of light sources.

12. The spectrum measurement method of claim 10, further comprising obtaining the light spectrum corresponding to each of the plurality of light sources from at least one of an internal database and an external database.

13. The spectrum measurement method of claim 10, further comprising:

applying the electric signal having various strengths to each of the plurality of light sources; and

obtaining the light spectrum corresponding to each of the plurality of light sources by measuring the intensity of light emitted from each of the plurality of light sources.

14. A composition analysis apparatus comprising:

a spectrum measurer configured to obtain a spectrum of an object; and

a first processor configured to analyze the spectrum of the object to analyze a composition of the object,

wherein the spectrum measurer comprises;

a plurality of light sources configured to emit light having different wavelengths to the object;

a light detector configured to receive light, which is reflected or scattered from or transmitted through the object, and to measure an intensity of the received light; and

a second processor configured to determine a strength of an electric signal to be applied to at least one of the plurality of light sources by using one of the plurality of light sources, and to obtain the spectrum of the object by applying the electric signal having the determined strength to the at least one of the plurality of light sources,

wherein the second processor is further configured to select a light source, having a largest amount of light, among the plurality of light sources, and to determine the strength of the electric signal to be applied to the at least one of the plurality of light sources by using the selected light source.