Newcreation Co., Ltd.

Nsk Corporation

Motoshi Sakai

Koji Hashimoto

Kazumi Haga

Zenta Ushiyama

Kazuya Yamada

Yasuaki Abe

Kanta Sato

Yoshihiro Ishiguro

Satoshi Akiyama

A linear actuator of the present disclosure includes a ball screw device, a piston, and a rotation stopper. A screw shaft includes a screw shaft body, a male spline portion, and a step surface. A nut includes a first end surface, a first opening portion, and a first stopper. The piston includes a piston body, a cylindrical portion having a cylindrical shape, protruding in a second direction from a central portion of an opposite surface, and fitted into the male spline portion, and a second stopper protruding in the second direction from the opposite surface. The first stopper and the second stopper abut on each other and form the rotation stopper when the screw shaft is at an initial position. The step surface is arranged in the second direction compared to the first opening portion and is located inside the nut when the screw shaft is at the initial position.

Linear actuator

A ball screw device includes: a screw shaft the outer peripheral surface of which has a first thread groove; a nut the inner peripheral surface of which is provided with a second thread groove that matches the first thread groove, and the outer peripheral surface of which is provided with a through hole; a plurality of balls that roll between the first thread groove and the second thread groove; a circulation component including a main body part and a pair of leg parts provided on both ends of the main body part, and that is provided on the nut; and a pin component that fixes the circulation component to the nut. Each of the leg parts is inserted into the through hole, the pin component is provided on the leg part in an overlapping manner, and the leg part is retained in the through hole by the pin component.

Ball screw device

A surface examining method and a surface examining apparatus, in which a large-sized lens of an object-side telecentric optical system is not required and which can observe a surface to be examined in a wide region. A surface examining method for examining a surface of an object to be measured, by observing a light reflected from the object through an object-side telecentric optical system or an image-object-side telecentric optical system, comprises the steps of; arranging the object-side telecentric optical system or the image-object-side telecentric optical system so that an optical axis thereof is inclined with respect to a direction normal to the object to be measured, and observing the light reflected from the object to be measured.

Surface inspecting method and surface inspecting device

The present invention provides a light illuminating method, a surface examining method using the light illuminating method, and apparatuses for performing these methods. In the surface illuminating apparatus for illuminating an object with a light beam from a light source through a lens member for illumination, the lens member for illumination has a characteristics with respect to a longitudinal aberration caused by a spherical aberration in the light source side of the lens for illumination, that an amount of shift from a paraxial image surface to image formation points gradually increase or decrease, with an increase in height of light incidence into the lens; and the light source is set at a position in an outside of a group of the image formation points.

Light projecting method, surface inspection method, and apparatus used to implement these methods

A method enables measurement of the configuration of a pattern with irregularity in a wide surface region with a high accuracy and in a single operation. The surface inspecting method includes irradiating a measurement objective region with an illuminating light in an oblique direction thereto; forming an image of reflected light from the measurement objective region, the formed image of reflected light having points with luminance corresponding to the incident angle of the illuminating light at respective points on the measurement objective region picking up the formed image to collect luminance data of respective points in the measurement objective region; analyzing spatial frequencies of the luminance data with respect to positions in a desired direction to make a plurality of spatial frequency data; and extracting a desired frequency component from the plurality of spatial frequency data.

Surface inspecting device and surface inspecting method

There is provided an inspection apparatus which illuminates at least part of a sample with diffused light from a diffused light source and inspects the sample based on light reflected from the sample. An illuminating chamber is defined by a wall member. The wall member has an inner wall surface for reflecting diffused light from the diffused light source, a sample-inserting opening formed through the wall member for inserting the at least part of the sample into the illuminating chamber therethrough, and a sample-observing opening formed through the wall member for permitting light reflected from the at least part of the sample to be emitted out of the illuminating chamber. The sample is observed by the use of an object-side telecentric optical system having a lens system for collecting parallel light from the light emitted from the sample-observing opening, and an aperture stop arranged at or in the vicinity of a back focal point of the lens system.

Optical inspection apparatus

The method comprises the steps of: irradiating an objective region to be measured with an illuminating light in an oblique direction thereto; forming an image of reflected light from the objective region by member of an object-side telecentric optical system or an image-object-side telecentric optical system, which has an optical axis coinciding with an incident direction of the illuminating light to the objective region and has a object-side angular aperture against a point on the objective region, which is set at a predetermined angle; picking up the formed image to collect luminance data of respective points in the objective region; and processing the luminance data to recognize bright and dark portions and thereby determining the presence or absence of an irregular portion and a shape of the irregular portion, in the objective region. The method enables measurement of the presence or absence of irregularity and the shape of the irregularity in a wide surface region with a high accuracy and in a single operation by using an apparatus having relatively simple construction.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Motoshi Sakai