Mitutoyo Corporation

Asahi Glass Company, Limited

Kabushiki Kaisha Topcon

Akira Takada

Gyokubu Cho

Makoto Kaieda

Takashi Hanamura

Takuho Maeda

Naoki Sugimoto

Koichi Komatsu

Shigenori Nagano

Kozo Ariga

Hideo Takahashi

Hiroyuki Yoshida

Kiyoshi Matsumoto

Shinya Kikugawa

Yasumasa Nakao

Gen Kojima

Junichiro Kase

Masao Unoki

Kenji Oda

Barry Saylor

Ryan Northrup

Jeetendra Sehgal

Tsutomu Koyama

Osamu Yanagisawa

Koji Miura

Isao Tokuhara

Yoshio Takegawa

Hideyo Osada

Haruo Aizawa

Seturo Ito

Shinya Ikoma

Masayuki Momiuchi

Hideaki Hayashi

Yosuke Sato

Makoto Fujino

Hidemitsu Asano

Satoru Takaki

Fumihiko Koshimizu

Dahai Yu

Nobuo Hori

Yasuhiko Akao

Takeshi Sawa

Mitsuhiro Kawata

Eiji Furuta

Yo Terashita

Masato Shimizu

Yuuto Karasawa

Shinji Hashimoto

Takuya Komada

An abnormality determination apparatus includes a data acquisition part that acquires position data indicating a plurality of positions to be measured of a standard gage used in a coordinate measuring apparatus, in association with apparatus identification information for identifying the coordinate measuring apparatus, a generation part that generates distance data indicating a distance to be measured that is a distance between the plurality of positions to be measured indicated by the position data, a storage that stores an appropriate range in which the distance data is determined to be appropriate, and a determination part that determines whether there is an abnormality in the coordinate measuring apparatus on the basis of whether or not the distance to be measured indicated by the distance data is included in the appropriate range, and outputs a determination result in association with the apparatus identification information.

Abnormality determination apparatus, abnormality determination method, and abnormality determination system

An image measuring method performed with an image measuring device measuring a dimension of a measured object from an image of the measured object captured by an image capturer. The method executes a standard reference object measurement measuring a dimension of the standard reference object with the image measuring device; a standard reference dimension input inputting a dimension of the standard reference object specified by a device other than the image measuring device; a preset value calculation calculating a preset value from the dimension of the measured standard reference object and from a dimension of the standard reference object measured by a predetermined measurement tool; a measurement measuring a dimension of a measured object other than the standard reference object using the image measuring device; and a correction correcting the dimension of the measured object other than the standard reference object measured by the image measuring device.

Image measuring method and apparatus

A calibration method for improving distortion of a waveform of a point-spread-function without constantly executing feedback control to a wavelength-swept light source is provided. An interference signal is generated by varying voltage to be applied to a light source within one period, the interference signal is sampled at equal time intervals on a time axis, the point-spread-function is obtained through Fourier transform by multiplying by a first window function, and a complex analysis signal including frequency information of light is obtained through inverse Fourier transform by multiplying the point-spread-function by a second window function. After a variation in a frequency of the light relative to a time within one period is obtained at equal time intervals by unwrapping phase information of the complex analysis signal, a correspondence relationship between the variation in the frequency of the light within one period and a variation in voltage within one period is obtained.

Method of calibrating interferometer and interferometer using the same

A hardness tester includes a memory associating and storing a parts program having defined measurement conditions with respect to a sample, including a test position, and an image file acquired by capturing an image of the shape of the sample; an image acquirer acquiring image data of the sample to be measured; a pattern matcher performing a pattern matching process on the image data of the sample using the image file associated with the parts program; a determiner determining whether an image file exists which has a shape related to the image data of the sample; a retriever retrieving the parts program associated with the image file having a related shape; and a measurer measuring hardness of the sample based on the retrieved parts program.

Hardness test apparatus and hardness testing method

A distance in a scanning direction between a first set of edges which face each other and exhibit an opposite change between light and dark is measured by an image measuring machine, and a bias correction value is calculated based on a difference between a measured value and a true value. Using the bias correction value, detection point correction values, which are correction values in various directions of edge detection points detected by a scan of a measured object using the image measuring machine, are calculated; a correction amount used in correction of the edge detection points is specified based on the detection point correction value in each direction; and the edge detection points are corrected using the correction amount.

Edge detection bias correction value calculation method, edge detection bias correction method, and edge detection bias correcting program

A hardness tester includes a memory storing, as a parts program, definitions of measurement conditions including a coordinate system and test position defined with respect to an image of a standard reference sample; a pattern searcher performing a pattern searching process, with reference to a plurality of samples to be measured, using a pattern image based on the image of the standard reference sample, and detecting a number of samples having a shape identical to that of the standard reference sample, as well as a position and angle of the samples having the identical shape; a pattern definer defining a coordinate system and test position for each of the samples having the identical shape based on the position and angle of each of the samples having the identical shape; and a measurer measuring the hardness of the samples for which the coordinate system and test position have been defined.

An image measuring apparatus is configured such that an image of a measured object placed on a stage is captured by a camera, the captured image is displayed on, a captured image display screen, and determination results based on results of a measurement are displayed in an overview list separately from the captured image of the measured object. The image measuring apparatus includes an individual determination results display region displaying individual determination results for each measurement position; and an overall determination results display region displaying overall determination results for the measured object as a unit. The image measuring apparatus is configured to display the individual determination results and the overall determination results together.

Image measuring apparatus

The present invention includes: an image capturer capturing an image of the sample to be measured; an image acquirer acquiring image data of the sample captured by the image capturer; a pattern searcher performing, on the image data of the sample acquired by the image acquirer, pattern searching process using a pattern image selected based on the sample and identifying a position in the image matching the pattern image; a profile extractor extracting a profile of the sample based on the position in the image identified by the pattern searcher; a calculator calculating a hardness measurement position of the sample based on the profile extracted by the profile extractor; and a measurer executing hardness testing on the sample based on the hardness measurement position calculated by the calculator and measuring the hardness of the sample.

An optical interferometric measurement apparatus includes an interference optical system to output a monitoring interference signal and a measurement interference signal in accordance with light emitted from a wavelength-swept light source, and a controller to measure a movement of an object to be measured. The controller has a storage to store monitoring data acquired by sampling the monitoring interference signal in each period of the light source and measurement data acquired by sampling the measurement interference signal in each period of the light source and Fourier transformation unit to apply Fourier transform to the measurement data. The controller determines a phase of the measurement interference signal based on the Fourier-transformed measurement data and measures the movement of the object based on the phase.

Apparatus for optical interferometric measurement and method for the same

A machine vision system program editing environment including synchronized selection and/or identification of related features in a plurality of different user interface windows is provided. In particular, one of the windows is an editing window where a part program representation is displayed for editing by a user. In one embodiment, a user may select data or another feature of interest in a window that is not the editing window (e.g., a results window, or graphical workpiece inspection feature display window) and the associated part program instruction representation is automatically highlighted and/or selected in the editing window. Conversely, a part program instruction representation may be selected by a user in the editing window and the associated results or feature in another window is automatically highlighted and/or selected. User interface navigation, rapid program quality assessment, and overall part program creation and editing efficiency are significantly enhanced in such an editing environment.

Machine vision system program editing environment including synchronized user interface features

A machine vision system program editing environment includes near real time context generation. Rather than requiring execution of all preceding instructions of a part program in order to generate a realistic context for subsequent edits, surrogate data operations using previously saved data replace execution of certain sets of instructions. The surrogate data may be saved during the actual execution of operations that are recorded in a part program. An edit mode of execution substitutes that data as a surrogate for executing the operations that would otherwise generate that data. Significant time savings may be achieved for context generation, such that editing occurs within an operating context which may be repeatedly refreshed for accuracy in near real time. This supports convenient program modification by relatively unskilled users, using the native user interface of the machine vision system, rather than difficult to use text-based or graphical object-based editing environments.

Machine vision system program editing environment including real time context generation features

The present invention provides a mask blank which comprises a substrate made of a synthetic quartz glass and a light-shielding film laminated on a surface of the substrate and is for use in a semiconductor device production technique employing an exposure light wavelength of 200 nm or shorter, wherein the mask blank has a birefringence, as measured at a wavelength of 193 nm, of 1 nm or less per substrate thickness. According to the present invention, mask blanks suitable for use in the immersion exposure technique and the polarized illumination technique are provided.

Mask blanks

An optical apparatus includes a laser light source for emitting a beam of light, an integrator for dividing the beam of light into plural beams of light, and a light focusing optical system for focusing the beams of light passed through the integrator. The optical apparatus also includes a stage, on which the light concentrated by the light focusing optical system is irradiated and on which an object may be placed, and includes a projecting optical system for projecting the light transmitted through the object. The following conditions satisfy the following numerical formula (1). The projecting optical system has a visual field including an effective visual field, and the integrator has a division number N corresponding to a predetermined direction in a predetermined effective visual field. A ghost image is formed in the effective visual field in the predetermined direction and has contrast &#x3b3;. The light focusing optical system has numerical aperture NA, the projecting optical system has numerical aperture NA, and (NA/NA) defines a coherence factor &#x3c3;. The object has a light blocking portion with an amplitude transmittance T. 

Optical apparatus, photomask inspecting apparatus, and exposure apparatus

It is to obtain a silica glass suitable as a material for an optical material constituting an optical system to be used for EUVL, which has a low coefficient of thermal expansion from 0 to 100&#xb0; C., and on which formation of concave defects is suppressed in a polishing step to achieve a high level of flatness. A silica glass containing from 0.1 to 10 mass % of Sn calculated as SnOand from 3 to 10 mass % of Ti calculated as TiO, which has a homogeneity of the coefficient of thermal expansion from 0 to 100&#xb0; C. to the temperature of from 50 to 200 ppb/&#xb0; C., a coefficient of thermal expansion from 0 to 100&#xb0; C. of 0&#xb1;250 ppb/&#xb0; C., and a Vickers hardness of at most 650.

Silica glass and optical material

An optical branching device comprises a first lens member comprising a transmitting plane surface, a transmitting convex surface having an approximate center of curvature in the transmitting plane surface, and a first optical fiber and a second optical fiber firmly affixed on the transmitting plane surface of the first lens member. The transmitting convex surface has a wavelength-selective mirror surface that transmits light of a first wavelength and reflects light of a second wavelength. The light of the second wavelength, which is one of the wavelengths of light emitted from the first optical fiber and is reflected and converged by the wavelength-selective mirror surface, enters into the second optical fiber.

Optical branching device

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Akira Takada