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:
Mar. 07, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1998
Mark Bashkansky, Alexandria, VA (US);
Michael Duncan, Cheverly, MD (US);
John Reintjes, Alexandria, VA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
A scanning system for scanning in first and second dimensions a desired surface topology of a sample, the scanning device comprising: a light source for producing a collimated light beam; a first scanning device responsive to the collimated light beam from the light source for producing a first scanned beam in a first dimension with a constant optical path length; and a second scanning device coupled between the first scanning device and the sample for focusing and scanning the first scanned beam in a second dimension onto the surface region of the sample to cause the collimated light beam to scan the surface topology of the sample with a constant optical path length in each of the first and second dimensions of the desired topology of the sample. In a second embodiment of the invention, a beam of light is focused by a first lens before a scanner and the scanner is rotated. Second and third lenses arranged in a 4-f combination are used to image rotated focal spots along a spherical convex surface of a sample while the optical path length stays constant. Slow scanning in other dimensions can be performed by mechanical means.