Nikon Corporation

Brett William Herr

Michael B Binnard

Daniel Gene Smith

Paul Derek Coon

Johnathan Marquez

Eric Peter Goodwin

Stephen P Renwick

Steven Douglas Slonaker

Jonathan Kyle Wells

Patrick S Chang

Motofusa Ishikawa

Matthew Parker-McCormick Bjork

Matthew D Rosa

Heather Lynn Durko

3D metrology techniques are disclosed for determining a changing topography of a substrate processed in an additive manufacturing system. Techniques include fringe scanning, simultaneous fringe projections, interferometry, and x-ray imaging. The techniques can be applied to 3D printing systems to enable rapid topographical measurements of a 3D printer powder bed, or other rapidly moving, nearly continuous surface to be tested. The techniques act in parallel to the system being measured to provide information about system operation and the topography of the product being processed. A tool is provided for achieving higher precision, increasing throughput, and reducing the cost of operation through early detection and diagnosis of operating problems and printing defects. These techniques work well with any powder bed 3D printing system, providing real-time metrology of the powder bed, the most recently printed layer, or both without reducing throughput.

Metrology for additive manufacturing

A position encoder for monitoring position of an object includes a target pattern, an illumination system, an image sensor, and a control system. The illumination system generates (i) a first illumination beam that is directed toward and impinges on the target pattern, the first illumination beam having a first beam characteristic; and (ii) a second illumination beam that is directed toward and impinges on the target pattern, the second illumination beam having a second beam characteristic that is different than the first beam characteristic. The image sensor is coupled to the object and is spaced apart from the target pattern. The image sensor senses a first set of information from the first illumination beam impinging on the target pattern and senses a second set of information from the second illumination beam impinging on the target pattern. The control system analyzes the first set of information and the second set of information to monitor the position of the object.

High-resolution position encoder with image sensor and encoded target pattern

Growing community of inventors

Menlo Park, CA, United States of America

Brett William Herr