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:
Jul. 27, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 23, 1998
John B Hayes, Tucson, AZ (US);
Veeco Corporation, Tucson, AZ (US);
Abstract
An autocollimator/point-range sensor system produces a linearly polarized light beam that is split into a point-range sensor beam and an autocollimator beam. The linearly polarized point-range sensor beam is utilized to carry out z-position measurements according to prior-art techniques. The autocollimator beam is passed through a quarter-wave plate to introduce a 90-degree phase shift and convert it to circularly polarized light. An analyzer placed in front of the autocollimator detector is positioned such that its transmission axis is offset with respect to the plane of polarization of the linearly polarized point-range sensor beam, thereby blocking any scattered light from the sensor beam while passing a component of the circularly-polarized autocollimator light to reach the detector.