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:
Jan. 14, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 12, 2000
Mitutoyo Corporation, Kawasaki, JP;
Abstract
An interference optical system ( ) is employed to split an input light beam in two, giving a predetermined optical path length difference to the resultant two light beams and thereafter synthesizing them to generate interference fringes. A reference light with a known wavelength &lgr; is introduced into the interference optical system ( ) from a coherent reference light source ( ). A test light with an unknown wavelength &lgr; is simultaneously introduced into the interference optical system ( ) from a coherent test light source ( ) via a different optical path. The interference optical system ( ) modulates both received signals obtained from the reference and test lights by giving the same variation to optical path length differences for the reference and test lights. Degrees of modulations of the received signals, obtained from the reference and test lights, depend on their wavelengths &lgr; and &lgr; , respectively. Accordingly, the wavelength &lgr; of the test light can be computed by detecting the degrees of modulations of the received signals and using a ratio between the degrees of the wavelength &lgr; of the reference light.