Measurement system having a camera with a lens and a separate sensor

• US 6,671,397 B1
• Filed: 12/23/1999
• Issued: 12/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: MV Research Limited
• Inventors: Boyle, Adrian, Mahon, James, Conlon, Peter, Dorr, Niall
• Primary Examiner(s): Boudreau, Leo
• Assistant Examiner(s): GORADIA, SHEFALI DINESH
• Application Number:
  US09/471,385
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• Field of Search: 382/145, 382/151, 382/141, 382/150, 382/146, 382/154, 348/126, 257/98, 250/559.44, 250/559.45, 250/559.46, 250/559.23, 250/559.34, 250/559.31, 356/237.4, 356/237.5, 702/40
• US Class Current: 382/145
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/95684 Patterns showing highly reflecting parts, e.g. metallic elements

Abstract

A measurement system (1) has a camera with a lens (12) and a separate sensor (10) mounted so that their planes (13,11) intersect at an object plane (3) according to the Scheimpflug principle. A reference camera(4) is normal and provides a 2D normal image which is used by an image processor (25) to determine a calibration image. This allows the image processor to determine height of the object (2). A single image capture provides an image of the full object, such as a ball grid array (BGA).

Claims

1. A measurement system comprising:

means for supporting an object to be inspected in an object plane,

a light source mounted to illuminate the object,

an obliquely mounted camera for capture of images of the illuminated object,

an image processor including means for determining height of the object using a calibration value,

and, the obliquely-mounted camera includes a sensor and a separate lens, and

the system further includes means for supporting the sensor and the lens of the obliquely-mounted camera at mutually different angles and forming a plane through the sensor and a plane through the lens which substantially intersect at the object plane according to the Scheimpflug principle to provide the oblique camera with a relatively large field of view in focus,

the system further includes a reference camera mounted to capture a two dimensional normal image of an object,

the system further includes means to move the reference and the oblique cameras or an object a known distance relative to each other,

and the system includes means for generating the calibration value by

capturing normal and oblique first calibration images of a two dimensional calibration tool,

moving the reference and oblique cameras or the calibration tool a known distance with respect to each other in the normal z-direction,

capturing normal and oblique second calibration images of the calibration tool, and

the image processor determining the calibration value from said calibration images, said calibration value enabling the system to generate during use an expected location in an image from the obliquely-mounted camera for any point in an image obtained from the reference camera.

2. The measurement system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image processor includes means for determining the calibration image from said normal image, and means for determining a centroid of the image to determine a peak of an object.

3. The measurement system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the light source is mounted with respect to the obliquely-mounted camera whereby the peak of the object is sensed.

4. The measurement system as claimed in claim 3, wherein only an area including the peak of the object is sensed.

5. The measurement system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the system further comprises a lateral light source arranged in an annular configuration with respect to the object support means to provide an annular image for the reference camera, and the image processor includes means for determining the centroid of the annular image to provide the normal image.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the lateral light and oblique light have different wavelengths, and the light entering the camera is filtered to exclude the light for the other camera, and both the primary and the reference images are simultaneously captured.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the object is illuminated with lateral light directed substantially parallel to the object plane with the reference image being annular, and the object is also illuminated by oblique light directed from an oblique angle with the primary image corresponds to a surface area only including an object peak.