Optical interference profiler having shadow compensation

• US 6,147,764 A
• Filed: 03/31/1999
• Issued: 11/14/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mitutoyo Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitutoyo Corporation
• Inventors: Handa, Hirohisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Turner, Samuel A.
• Application Number:
  US09/283,813
• Time in Patent Office: 594 Days
• Field of Search: 356/359, 356/360, 356/357
• US Class Current: 356/512
• CPC Class Codes: B24B 37/04 designed for working plane surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B24B 49/12 involving optical means
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/30 for measuring roughness or irregularity of surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 21/30 for measuring roughness or irregularity of surfaces

Abstract

In machining such as lapping and polishing, the detection of interference fringes is carried out during the machining, and an interference fringe image of a size sufficient to determine the surface profile is obtained. The workpiece is mounted on a machining mechanism base, and a lapping tool mounted on the workpiece is rotated. The lapping tool has a measurement window and an interferometer is provided above the workpiece via the lapping tool. The interferometer captures plural interference fringe images at different positions of the measurement window, each including fringe images of the measurement window areas and shadow images of the areas obstructed by the lapping tool. The shadow images are eliminated from the interference fringe images on the basis of the reference value for the optical intensity of the shadow image, and the fringe images of the measurement window areas are synthesized to form consecutive synthesized interference fringe images for a wide range of interference fringes.

Claims

1. An optical interference measurement device for optically measuring an interference of a target workpiece to be held in a machining device and machined by a machine tool, said optical interference measurement device comprising:

a machine tool having a measurement window which penetrates the machine tool;

interference image formation means for irradiating the machine tool with measurement light from the side opposite to the workpiece to capture a plurality of optical interference images which are present in the range including said measurement window and which have different positional relationships between the workpiece and the measurement window; and

image processing means for synthesizing the fringe images of the workpiece obtained in the measurement window area of said plural optical interference images to form a synthesized interference fringe image in which the interference fringe images are consecutive within a predetermined measurement range;

said image processing means eliminating the shadow of the machine tool from the optical interference image on the basis of a reference tool shadow intensity which is the reference size of the optical intensity of the tool shadow corresponding to the tool section in the optical interference image to form said synthesized interference fringe image.

2. The optical interference measurement device according to claim 1, wherein

said image processing means utilizes, among picture elements in the identical position of said plural optical interference images, a picture element which has an optical intensity offset from said reference tool shadow intensity as the picture element constituting said synthesized interference fringe image.

3. The optical interference measurement device according to claim 1, wherein

said image processing means utilizes, among picture elements in the identical position of said plural optical interference images, a picture element which has an optical intensity at the largest distance from said reference tool shadow intensity as the picture element constituting said synthesized interference fringe image.

4. The optical interference measurement device according to claim 2, wherein

said reference tool shadow intensity is uniformly set over the entire optical interference image;

the standard range of the values obtained for the optical intensity of the tool shadow is set as the standard shadow intensity range; and

said image processing means utilizes an image element of one reference image among the plurality of optical interference images as the picture element constituting said synthesized interference image, in the event that the picture elements of identical position of the plurality of optical interference images are all included in said reference shadow intensity range.

5. The optical interference measurement device according to claim 2, wherein

said reference tool shadow intensity is set separately for the respective positions of the optical interference image, and wherein judgment as to whether or not each picture element of each position of the optical interference image is to be used for said synthesized interference image is made considering the reference tool shadow intensity corresponding to this picture element.

6. The optical interference measurement device according to claim 1, wherein

said reference tool shadow intensity is a value previously determined by measurement.

7. The optical interference measurement device according to claim 1, wherein

said image processing means processes said synthesized interference fringe image into a binary image, and then calculates the surface profile of the workpiece on the basis of the binary image.

8. A machining device with a measurement function which is provided with the optical interference measurement device described in claim 1 to machine a workpiece by means of the relative movement of the workpiece and a machine tool.

9. An image processing device for an optical interference measurement device which processes optical interference images of a workpiece photographed through a measurement window which penetrates a machine tool of a machining device from the side opposite to the workpiece, said image processing device comprising:

input means for inputting plural optical interference images having respectively different positional relationships between the workpiece and the measurement window; and

image processing means for synthesizing the fringe images of the workpiece obtained at the measurement window sections of said plural optical interference images to form a synthesized interference fringe image in which interference fringes are consecutive in a predetermined measurement range, said image processing means eliminating tool shadows from optical interference images on the basis of the reference tool shadow intensity which is the reference size of the optical intensity of the tool shadows corresponding to the tool portions in the optical interference image to form said synthesized interference fringe image.

10. The image processing device according to claim 9, wherein

said image processing means utilizes, among picture elements in the identical position of said plural optical interference images, a picture element which has an optical intensity offset from said reference tool shadow intensity as the picture element constituting said synthesized interference fringe image.

11. The image processing device according to claim 9, wherein said image processing means comprises:

a base image memory for storing the base image which is one of said plural optical interference images;

a comparative image memory for sequentially storing the remaining images of said plural optical interference images as comparative images; and

a data processor for reading the comparative images stored sequentially in the comparative image memory and then synthesizing a base image and each comparative image to ultimately synthesize all of said plural optical interference images.

12. The image processing device according to claim 11, wherein

said data processor utilizes one picture element from the base image or the comparison image for each position of the synthesized image, on the basis of a difference between said reference tool shadow intensity and the optical intensity of a picture element of the base image and a difference between said reference tool shadow intensity and the optical intensity of a picture element in the identical position of the comparative image.

13. The image processing device according to claim 9, wherein said synthesized interference images are output to a display device.

14. The image processing device according to claim 9 which includes a surface profile calculator for calculating the surface profile of the workpiece from said synthesized interference images.