The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 15, 1998
Filed:
Jul. 11, 1997
Wayne V Sorin, Mountain View, CA (US);
Shalini Venkatesh, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Brian L Heffner, Los Altos, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for measuring the thickness of a film on a production line or the like. The apparatus includes a moveable member in contact with the film. The moveable member rotates about a fixed member and includes a transparent region. The apparatus also includes an optical probe attached to the fixed member. The optical probe has an optical fiber for coupling a light signal to the film through the transparent region of the moveable member and for returning light reflected from the film to a receiver for determining the thickness of the film. The optical probe may also include a lens assembly for imaging the light signal onto the film and imaging the reflected light signals back into the optical probe. The optical probe may also include a partially reflecting reference reflector for simplifying the analysis of multi-layer films.