Image pickup apparatus

• US 5,995,137 A
• Filed: 05/23/1996
• Issued: 11/30/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Yoshiro Yamada
• Original Assignee: Yoshiro Yamada
• Inventors: Yamada, Yoshiro, Saito, Mikio
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Bryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Philippe, Gims S.
• Application Number:
  US08/649,644
• Time in Patent Office: 1,286 Days
• Field of Search: 348/340, 348/219, 348/97, 348/88, 348/342, 358/454, 358/451, 358/453, 358/463, 358/516, 358/523, 359/679, 359/683
• US Class Current: 348/88
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/956 Inspecting patterns on the surface of objects contactless testing of electronic circuits G01R31/308; testing currency G07D; manufacturing processes per se of semiconductor devices implementing a measuring step H01L22/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/60 Noise processing, e.g. detecting, correcting, reducing or removing noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/67 applied to fixed-pattern noise, e.g. non-uniformity of response

Abstract

An image pickup system including an image pickup device (4) for taking an image from an object (1) containing a periodic pattern and outputting an image signal (5), a zoom lens (2) for forming an object image on the image pickup device, a moire amount detection circuit (10) for detecting an amount of moire from the image signal (5), and an imaging magnification control circuit including a differentiating circuit (18) provided for setting a magnification of the zoom lens (2) and finely adjusting the magnification of the zoom lens (2) to allow the amount of moire detected by the moire amount detection circuit (10) to become below the setting value, a positive/negative determination circuit (20), a system controller (22), and a ROM (24).

Claims

1. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

image pickup means for taking an image from an object containing a periodic pattern and for outputting an image signal;

image processing means for processing the image signal output from said image pickup means; and

magnification setting means for setting an imaging magnification of the object relative to the image device in accordance with a pitch of a periodic pattern contained in the object,

wherein said magnification setting means comprises means for setting the image magnification to allow a pixel pitch of said image pickup means to be made an integral multiple of the pitch of the periodic pattern imaged on said image pickup means.

2. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said magnification setting means comprises means for setting the image magnification to allow the pixel pitch of the image pickup means to be made double the pitch of the periodic pattern imaged on said image pickup means.

3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said magnification setting means comprises a zoom lens arranged in an incident optical path of said image pickup means and means for adjusting the magnification of the zoom lens.

4. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said magnification setting means comprises means for adjusting a distance between the object and said image pickup means.

5. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said magnification setting means comprises plural lenses having different focal lengths and means for selectively inserting one of said plural lenses into an incident optical path of said image pickup means.

6. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said magnification setting means comprises memory means for storing a relation of the kind of objects to the pitch of the periodic pattern contained in the object and means for setting the imaging magnification on the basis of the pitch read out from the memory means in accordance with the kind of the object.

7. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image processing means comprises means for detecting a defect spot in the object.

8. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising aspect ratio correcting means for varying an aspect ratio per pixel of the image formed on said image pickup means by controlling at least one of a scanning speed of said image pickup means and a moving speed of the object relative to said image pickup means in accordance with the aspect ratio of the pitch of the periodic pattern contained in the object.

9. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising aspect ratio correcting means for optically varying an aspect ratio per pixel of the image formed on said image pickup means in accordance with the aspect ratio of the pitch of the periodic pattern contained in the object.

10. An image pickup apparatus comprising:

image pickup means for taking an image from an object containing a periodic pattern and for outputting an image signal;

image processing means for processing the image signal output from said image pickup means;

means for detecting an amount of moire on the basis of the image signal output from said image pickup means; and

magnification setting means for setting an imaging magnification of the object relative to said image pickup means so that the amount of moire detected by the detecting means becomes below a setting amount,

wherein said magnification setting means comprises means for setting the image magnification to allow a pixel pitch of said image pickup means to be made an integral multiple of a pitch of the periodic pattern imaged on said image pickup means.

11. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein said magnification setting means comprises means for setting the image magnification to allow the pixel pitch of said image pickup means to be made double the pitch of the periodic pattern imaged on said image pickup means.

12. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said magnification setting means comprises a zoom lens arranged in an incident optical path of said image pickup means and means for adjusting the magnification of the zoom lens.

13. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said magnification setting means comprises means for adjusting a distance between the object and said image pickup means.

14. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said magnification setting means comprises a plurality of lenses of different focal distances and means for selectively inserting any one of the plurality of image taking lenses in an incident optical path of said image pickup means.

15. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said magnification setting means comprises memory means for storing a relation of kinds of objects to the pitch of the periodic pattern contained in the object and means for setting the imaging magnification on the basis of the pitch read out from the memory means in accordance with the kind of the object.

16. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said image processing means comprises means for detecting a defect spot in the object.

17. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising aspect ratio compensating means for varying an aspect ratio per pixel of the image formed on said image pickup means by controlling at least one of a scanning speed of said image pickup means and moving speed of the object relative to said image pickup means in accordance with the aspect ratio of the pitch of the periodic pattern contained in the object.

18. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising aspect ratio correcting means for optically varying an aspect ratio per pixel of the image formed on said image pickup means in accordance with the aspect ratio of the pitch of the periodic pattern contained in the object.

19. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said magnification setting means comprises means for re-setting an imaging magnification when the amount of moire detected by the detecting means is not below the setting amount.

20. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said detecting means comprises means for detecting the amount of moire by finding a difference between a maximal value and minimal value of a predetermined range of the image signal.