Mitutoyo Corporation

Bjorn Erik Bertil Jansson

Paul Gerard Gladnick

Scott Allen Harsila

Mark Lawrence Delaney

Andrew Patzwald

Vahan A Senekerimyan

Satoshi Koga

Akinori Saito

Scott Ellis Hemmings

Hiroyuki Kanamori

Joseph Andrew Summers

Richard Alan Wissner

A measuring system includes a measuring probe with a contact portion that contacts a workpiece to be measured. The measuring probe operates with a first update rate during at least part of a moving mode, wherein the moving mode includes movement of the measuring probe such that the contact portion is moved away from the workpiece and/or is moved at a distance from the workpiece that is equal to or greater than a threshold distance. The measuring probe operates with a second update rate (i.e., which is faster than the first update rate) during at least part of a measuring mode, wherein the measuring mode includes movement of the measuring probe such that the contact portion is moved toward the workpiece for obtaining a measurement. In various implementations, the combined use of the first and second update rates effectively reduces power-on drift of the measuring probe.

Adjustable update rate for measuring probe

A high-power fast-pulse driver and illumination system for high speed metrology imaging is provided, which includes an illumination source and a driver circuit configured to overdrive the illumination source using high currents and/or high current densities. The high currents are currents higher than manufacturer-recommended currents used to drive the illumination source and the high current densities are current densities higher than manufacturer-recommended current densities used to drive the illumination source. The illumination source is operated using a lifetime preserving technique selected from a first technique of operating the illumination source at low duty cycles of 2% or less or a second technique of operating the illumination source in a burst mode at higher duty cycles for short intervals. The driver and illumination system may be incorporated in a variable focus lens (VFL) system, to define multiple exposure increments for acquiring one or more images focused at one or more focus planes.

Fast high power pulsed light source system for high speed metrology imaging

A coordinate measuring probe body includes a rigid probe body structure including an upper mounting portion, a compliant element mounting frame, and an axial extension portion between them. A stylus suspension portion includes compliant elements that suspend a moving element from the compliant element mounting frame. A displacement sensing arrangement that senses displacement of the moving element includes displacement sensors that output a respective displacement signals. A circuit board assembly that receives the displacement signals has three component mounting portions which are interconnected with a flexible circuit component, and located around the axial extension portion. In various embodiments, all of the compliant elements are located on a distal side of the circuit board assembly.

Coordinate measurement probe body

A method is provided for operating a tunable acoustic gradient (TAG) lens imaging system. The method includes: (a) providing a smart lighting pulse control routine/circuit (SLPCRC) that provides a first mode of exposure control corresponding to a points from focus (PFF) mode of the TAG lens imaging system and a second mode of exposure control corresponding to an extended depth of focus (EDOF) mode of the TAG lens imaging system; (b) placing a workpiece in a field of view of the TAG lens imaging system; and (c) periodically modulating a focus position of the TAG lens imaging system without macroscopically adjusting the spacing between elements in the TAG lens imaging system, wherein the focus position is periodically modulated over a plurality of focus positions along a focus axis direction in a focus range including a surface height of the workpiece, at a modulation frequency of at least 30 kHz.

High-speed tag lens assisted 3D metrology and extended depth-of-field imaging

A compact CMM touch probe may include internal digital processing, a regulated power circuit, a trigger signal generating circuit, an interface connector limited to two electrical connections, and a differential signal configuration that inputs and outputs differential digital communication signals (including touch trigger signals) through the two connections, superimposed on a CMM supply voltage connected to them from the CMM. A specialized supply isolation circuit is configured in combination with various probe components and operating parameters, to couple the regulated power supply circuit to the CMM supply voltage at the two connections, while isolating it from loading the differential digital signals, which are AC coupled to the two connections. The differential digital signals may normally comprise touch trigger signals, and intermittent control and data signals, during separate respective time periods. In various embodiments, at least a majority of the differential digital signals are formatted using a DC-balanced encoding scheme.

Touch probe for CMM including digital signal communication

A system and method are provided for operating a touch probe for a coordinate measuring machine, wherein a value is permanently stored in the touch probe corresponding to an accumulated number of trigger signals generated in the touch probe over its operating history. For a non-erase cycle during which an erasable trigger counter block (e.g., included in a flash memory) of the touch probe is not erased, increasing values of an accumulated trigger count are stored in N address locations of the erasable trigger counter block. After all of the N address locations have been used, an erase operation sequence is performed, and a new non-erase cycle is initiated for repeating the process. In various implementations, the touch probe may not include an embedded processor or battery, for which the types of circuitry and methods that may be utilized for maintaining and storing the accumulated trigger count are correspondingly limited.

Trigger counter for measurement device with count values stored in flash memory

A position encoder system (e.g., including a linear encoder) is configured to rapidly provide encoder position data in response to position trigger signals that are received from a host motion control system at predictable times (e.g., according to a preset frequency, etc.) A pre-trigger lead time is determined that is a fraction of a duration of a defined encoder position sample period. A current instance of the encoder position sample period is then initiated at the pre-trigger lead time before a next predictable time of the position trigger signal. A current position trigger signal is then received (e.g., near the middle of the current instance of the encoder position sample period) from the host motion control system. The average effective sample time of the current instance of the encoder position sample period coincides with the actual timing of the current position trigger signal within an allowed tolerance window.

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Snohomish, WA, United States of America

Bjorn Erik Bertil Jansson