METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMAGING THREE-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE
First Claim
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1. A method for determining surface topology of a portion of a three-dimensional structure, comprising:
- (a) providing an array of incident light beams propagating in an optical path leading through a focusing optics and through a probing face;
the focusing optics defining one or more focal planes forward said probing face in a position changeable by said optics, each light beam having its focus on one of said one or more focal plane;
the beams generating a plurality of illuminated spots on the structure;
(b) detecting intensity of returned light beams propagating from each of these spots along an optical path opposite to that of the incident light;
(c) repeating steps (a) and (b) a plurality of times, each time changing position of the focal plane relative to the structure;
(d) for each of the illuminated spots, determining a spot-specific position, being the position of the respective focal plane yielding a maximum measured intensity of a respective returned light beam; and
(e) generating data representative of the topology of said portion.
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Abstract
An apparatus for determining surface topology of a portion of a three-dimensional structure is provided, that includes a probing member, an illumination unit, a light focusing optics, a translation mechanism, a detector and a processor.
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1 Claim
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1. A method for determining surface topology of a portion of a three-dimensional structure, comprising:
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(a) providing an array of incident light beams propagating in an optical path leading through a focusing optics and through a probing face;
the focusing optics defining one or more focal planes forward said probing face in a position changeable by said optics, each light beam having its focus on one of said one or more focal plane;
the beams generating a plurality of illuminated spots on the structure;(b) detecting intensity of returned light beams propagating from each of these spots along an optical path opposite to that of the incident light; (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) a plurality of times, each time changing position of the focal plane relative to the structure; (d) for each of the illuminated spots, determining a spot-specific position, being the position of the respective focal plane yielding a maximum measured intensity of a respective returned light beam; and (e) generating data representative of the topology of said portion.
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Specification