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. 31, 2009
Filed:
Apr. 27, 2006
Kazuhiko Kawasaki, Ushiku, JP;
Yoshimasa Suzuki, Tsukuba, JP;
David W. Sesko, Woodinville, WA (US);
Mitutoyo Corporation, Kawasaki, JP;
Abstract
An interferometer comprises a wavelength-variable light source. A reference light and a measurement light are synthesized, and the synthesized light is split into a plurality of split lights. A certain phase difference is provided between the split lights through phase shifting optical members. A plurality of interference fringe images formed by the phase-shifted split lights are captured at an imaging unit. Biases, amplitudes and the amounts of phase shift of the interference fringes formed by the plurality of split lights are calculated, based on interference fringe intensities of the imaged interference fringes, which are obtained by disposing a calibrating substrate instead of the measuring object varying the wavelength of the emitted light to plural values, and operating the imaging unit to capture a plurality of images of interference fringes obtained by the split lights.