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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8089636 | Inspecting system and inspecting method An object of the present invention is to apply a phase shift method to a workpiece having a rough surface to accurately detect an abnormal concave-convex irregularity. Therefore, in an inspecting system of the present invention, an image of a stripe pattern reflecte... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8064069 | Method and system for measuring the shape of a reflective surface The invention describes a method for measuring the shape of a reflective surface (14) and a corresponding system which has at least one pattern (15) for reflection at the reflective surface (14) and at least one camera (1) for viewing the... | 11/22/2011 |
| 7990549 | Method and apparatus for optically measuring periodic structures using orthogonal azimuthal sample orientation An optical metrology apparatus for measuring periodic structures using multiple incident azimuthal (phi) and polar (theta) incident angles is described. One embodiment provides the enhanced calculation speed for the special case of phi=90 incidence for 1-D (line and... | 08/02/2011 |
| 7929153 | Device for acquiring a three-dimensional video constituted by 3-D frames which contain the shape and color of the acquired body A device for acquiring the three-dimensional shape of the surface of an object comprises a lens; deflection means; at least two masks; at least two projection assemblies adapted to emit light beams which, by passing through the masks and the deflection means and by ... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7821650 | Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method with reduced scribe lane usage for substrate measurement In a device manufacturing method and a metrology apparatus, metrology measurements are executed using radiation having a first wavelength. Subsequently a grid of conducting material is applied on the substrate, the grid having grid openings which in a first directio... | 10/26/2010 |
| 7733504 | Shape evaluation method, shape evaluation device, and device having the shape evaluation device A shape evaluation device performs simulation by using an annular light source or concentric light source instead of a rectilinear light source and calculates a characteristic line for performing shape evaluation. The shape evaluation device includes a calculation d... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7715022 | Apparatus and method for measuring shape A shape measuring apparatus and a shape measuring method suited for measuring an edge profile of a thin sample such as a semiconductor wafer or the like is provided. A distribution of surface angle and an edge profile of a measurement site is calculated by emitting ... | 05/11/2010 |
| 7532333 | Method and apparatus for determining the shape and the local surface normals of specular surfaces A method teaches how to measure—even strongly curved—specular surfaces with an apparatus that measures a shape as well as local surface normals absolutely. This is achieved by the observation and evaluation of patterns that are reflected at the surface. The refl... | 05/12/2009 |
| 7505150 | Device and method for the measurement of the curvature of a surface The invention relates to a device and a method for the measurement of the curvature of a surface (1), which is more exact and less expensive than prior art devices. The device comprises a light source (2) for the irradiation of a light beam (3) ... | 03/17/2009 |
| 7505149 | Apparatus for surface inspection and method and apparatus for inspecting substrate A target object has its surface condition inspected by having its image taken from above while being irradiated by red, green and blue light beams at different elevation angles. An inspection area is set on the image and a direction is extracted on the image in whic... | 03/17/2009 |
| 7486408 | Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method with reduced scribe lane usage for substrate measurement In a device manufacturing method and lithographic apparatus wherein a pattern is transferred from a patterning device onto a substrate, a measurement target is provided on the substrate in a process enabling execution of a substrate measurement using radiation of a ... | 02/03/2009 |
| 7414733 | Azimuthal scanning of a structure formed on a semiconductor wafer A structure formed on a semiconductor wafer is examined by obtaining measurements of cross polarization components of diffraction beams, which were obtained from scanning an incident beam over a range of azimuth angles to obtain an azimuthal scan. A zero azimuth pos... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7391523 | Curvature/tilt metrology tool with closed loop feedback control Apparatus for quantitatively measuring the curvature and/or relative tilt of large surfaces wherein a small array of parallel laser beams, each separated by a known distance, reflect from the surface of a sample and fall upon a feedback controlled front-surface stee... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7362450 | Specular surface flaw detection An apparatus and a method for detecting low frequency specular surface flaws on coated substrates is disclosed. A method for detecting low frequency specular surface flaws may comprise: impinging visible electromagnetic radiation or light from an electromagnetic rad... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7342672 | Detection system for nanometer scale topographic measurements of reflective surfaces A linear position array detector system is provided which imparts light energy to a surface of a specimen, such as a semiconductor wafer, receives light energy from the specimen surface and monitors deviation of the retro or reflected beam from that expected to map ... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7336374 | Methods and apparatus for generating a mask A method for generating a mask for use with a light measurement system that includes a light source for projecting light onto a surface of an object, and an imaging system for receiving light reflected from the surface of the object. The method includes determining ... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7329855 | Optical inspection of glass bottles using multiple cameras A glass bottle inspecting apparatus is presented which can detect a defect at a specific location of a bottle-mouth portion of a glass bottle. An inspecting apparatus detects a defect of a glass bottle by imaging light from the glass bottle while the glass bottle ( | 02/12/2008 |
| 7315361 | System and method for inspecting wafers in a laser marking system An illumination system is disclosed for use in a semiconductor wafer back side inspection assembly. The illumination system includes an illumination source that is configured to direct illumination toward a highly reflective and directionally reflective surface at a... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7315362 | System and method for inspecting a mower A system and method for inspecting mowers that utilizes a video camera to allow a single technician to look directly at a selected reference point on a crankshaft of the operating mower to thereby determine if the crankshaft is bent. ... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7312879 | Distance determination in a scanned beam image capture device Methods, systems, and devices can determine spatial relationships between a probe and a target surface. Specular reflections from the target surface vary dramatically with small changes in angle between the scanning beam and the target surface, and as the geometry o... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7292350 | Laser system for measurements of the profile of objects A system for measuring a profile of an object comprising a source creating a beam of electromagnetic energy. An electromagnetic beam receiver spaced from the source for processing an output signal proportional to the girth of the object being measured. A platform fo... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7280213 | Light detection device A microplate reader includes a light emitting portion for irradiating each of a plurality of test samples with excitation light, a light receiving portion for receiving return light from each of the test samples, and an XY stage for moving the light emitting portion... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7280200 | Detection of a wafer edge using collimated light A system and method of inspecting a semiconductor wafer that may be employed to detect and to characterize defects occurring on an edge of the wafer. The wafer inspection system includes an optical module for providing a light source to scan the wafer edge, a light ... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7276380 | Transparent liquid inspection apparatus, transparent liquid inspection method, and transparent liquid application method The present invention provides a transparent liquid inspection apparatus capable of identifying a boundary between a transparent liquid applied on a base material which provides a multi-piece product and the base material, and automatically inspecting an applied con... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7265822 | Method and apparatus for determining presence of a component in a printed circuit board A method and apparatus for determining color, presence and/or polarity of a component in a printed circuit board includes a sensor and an LED positioned behind a faceplate. The faceplate abuts the component and light is reflected from the LED off the component and r... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7259873 | Method for measuring the dimension of a non-circular cross-section of an elongated article in particular of a flat cable or a sector cable Method for measuring the cross-sectional dimension of an elongated profile having rounded or sharp edges, in particular of a flat or sector cable by illuminating the article with light sources and determination of a plurality of shadow borders and calculating the pa... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7256898 | Method and device for determining the position of rotationally drivable tools To determine the position of rotationally drivable tools in machine tools, the moment of separation of the tool to be measured and a measuring beam, for example a laser beam of a light barrier, is used. The tool to be measured is first positioned in such a manner th... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7245386 | Object measuring device and associated methods A device for measuring one or more dimensions of an object. One or more light emitters direct light towards the object. At least one light blocking element, arranged between the light emitters and the object, blocks all but a bundle of light to form a light edge on ... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7215418 | Inspection of transparent substrates for defects Methods, apparatus and systems for the detection of defects in transparent substrates such as glass sheets are disclosed. The methods, apparatus and systems are capable of detecting optical path length variations in transparent substrates smaller than 100 nm. ... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7216065 | Reflecting surface design system, reflecting surface design method, recording medium, and computer program A reflecting surface design system (50) has (1) first rendering means (54) for displaying a free-form surface (20) on which a plurality of segments (24), each of which is defined by a plurality of vertices (251 to 25 | 05/08/2007 |
| 7199882 | Method and system for high speed measuring of microscopic targets A system including confocal and triangulation-based scanners or subsystems provides data which is both acquired and processed under the control of a control algorithm to obtain information such as dimensional information about microscopic targets which may be “non... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7194914 | Apparatus and method for scanning internal structure of O-rings Some O-rings can include internal flaws that can eventually lead to failure of the O-rings during use. In order to scan an internal structure of an O-ring, the present disclosure includes an apparatus with an apparatus body to which an O-ring support and a transduce... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7190465 | Laser measurement system What is disclosed is a 3-D laser measurement system, including a mirror continuously rotatable about a rotation axis which extends, e.g., in parallel or coaxial with a measuring beam emitted by an optical emitter and impinging on the mirror. ... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7190513 | Microscopy system and method A microscopy system and method provides functionalities for a user which are controllable by the user by displacing a body portion of the user. The functionalities comprise displacing a portion of a support mounting the microscopy optics and adjusting a stereo base ... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7170606 | Multi-way LED-based surface reflectance sensor and spectrophotometer A light sensor circuit based on direct connection of LEDs to I/O pins of a microcontroller. The LEDs are reverse biased and the parasitic junction capacitance is charged in an output mode. Then, the I/O pins placed into an high-impedance input mode. The time for the... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7167584 | Device for acquiring a three-dimensional shape by optoelectronic process The invention concerns a device for acquiring the three-dimensional shape of an object (10) by opto-electronic process, comprising a chromatic system (18) for illuminating the object (10) and for picking up the light reflected or backscattered b... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7145647 | Measurement of spatial coordinates A system for measurement of spatial coordinates comprising a probing tool and a main measuring unit, wherein said probing tool comprises a reflective object element, observation mechanism located in a known position and orientation relative to said reflective object... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7142295 | Inspection of transparent substrates for defects Methods, apparatus and systems for the detection of defects in transparent substrates such as glass sheets are disclosed. The methods, apparatus and systems are capable of detecting optical path length variations in transparent substrates smaller than 100 nm. ... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7133140 | Apparatus and measurement procedure for the fast, quantitative, non-contact topographic investigation of semiconductor wafers and other mirror like surfaces Apparatus and process for fast, quantitative, non-contact topographic investigation of samples. Apparatus includes a light source, and a collimating concave mirror structured and arranged to produce a parallel beam and to direct the parallel beam to a sample to be i... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7130137 | Method of designing reflective surface of reflector in vehicle lamp The method of designing a reflective surface of a reflector in a vehicle lamp according to the present invention comprise (1) a segment creating step of sectioning a free curved surface and creating a plurality of segments having a plurality of vertexes, and (2) a c... | 10/31/2006 |
