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:
Nov. 30, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 02, 1997
Takeshi Konada, Suginami-ku, JP;
Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A near-field scanning optical microscope is constructed so that a probe is placed close to a surface of a specimen and while the surface of the specimen is scanned with the probe, a region proximate to the surface of the specimen is measured with light. The microscope includes a mechanism for vibrating the probe in a direction nearly perpendicular to the surface of the specimen on scanning; a mechanism for detecting a distance between the surface of the specimen and the probe; and a mechanism for storing signals detected by scanning operation in the direction nearly perpendicular to the surface of the specimen as at least two measured data strings formed in accordance with a sampling table. In this way, the three-dimensional data on the surface of the specimen are acquired.