Apparatus for monitoring particles and method of doing the same
First Claim
1. An apparatus for monitoring a size of a particle, comprising:
- a laser beam source which radiates a laser beam to an area in which particles exist;
a photodetector which is comprised of a plurality of pixels, which receives said laser beam having been scattered by said particles, and outputs image data including brightness of pixels; and
an area detector which determines as a group only pixels that are simultaneously irradiated by said laser beam scattered by one of said particles, that are located adjacent to each other, and that have a brightness equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold brightness.
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Accused Products
Abstract
There is provided an apparatus for monitoring a size of a particle, including (a) a laser beam source which radiates a laser beam to an area in which particles exist, (b) a photodetector which receives the laser beam having been scattered by the particles, and outputs image data including brightness of pixels, (c) an area detector which detects pixels corresponding to an area on which the scattered laser beam is incident, based on the image data, (d) a maximum brightness detector which detects a maximum brightness among brightness of the pixels detected by the area detector, and (e) a measurement unit which compares the maximum brightness to a predetermined threshold brightness to thereby measure a relative size of the particles.
20 Citations
81 Claims
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1. An apparatus for monitoring a size of a particle, comprising:
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a laser beam source which radiates a laser beam to an area in which particles exist; a photodetector which is comprised of a plurality of pixels, which receives said laser beam having been scattered by said particles, and outputs image data including brightness of pixels; and an area detector which determines as a group only pixels that are simultaneously irradiated by said laser beam scattered by one of said particles, that are located adjacent to each other, and that have a brightness equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold brightness. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of monitoring a size of a particle, comprising:
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radiating a laser beam to an area in which particles exist; receiving said laser beam having been scattered by said particles with a photodetector comprised of a plurality of pixels, and creating image data including brightness of said pixels; and determining as a group only pixels that are simultaneously irradiated by said laser beam scattered by one of said particles, that are located adjacent to each other, and that have a brightness equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold brightness. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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55. A recording medium readable by a computer, storing a program therein for causing a computer to act as an apparatus for monitoring a size of a particle, said apparatus comprising:
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a laser beam source which radiates a laser beam to an area in which particles exist; a photodetector which is comprised of a plurality of pixels, wherein said photodetector receives said laser beam having been scattered by said particles, and outputs image data including brightness of pixels; and an area detector which determines as a group only pixels that are simultaneously irradiated by said laser beam scattered by one of said particles, that are located adjacent to each other, and that have a brightness equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold brightness. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70)
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71. A recording medium readable by a computer, storing a program therein for causing a computer to carry out a method of monitoring a size of a particle, said method comprising:
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radiating a laser beam to an area in which particles exist; receiving said laser beam having been scattered by said particles; and determining as a group only pixels that are simultaneously irradiated by said laser beam scattered by one of said particles, that are located adjacent to each other, and that have a brightness equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold brightness. - View Dependent Claims (72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)
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Specification