摘要:
A method for characterising instrument error in a surface measurement instrument, comprising obtaining first calibration measurement data representing a known surface form of a first reference object and obtaining second calibration measurement data representing a known surface form of a second reference object. At least a portion of the second calibration measurement data represents a measurement range that overlaps with at least a portion of a measurement range of the first calibration measurement data. A common error function is obtained that characterises the instrument error.
摘要:
A method of characterizing the surface of an aspheric diffractive structure includes using a metrological apparatus to perform a measurement on the surface of the structure so as to provide a measurement profile representing the z-direction deviations of the surface of the structure; determining parameters relating to the aspheric and diffractive components of the aspheric diffractive structure; producing data having the determined parameters; and comparing the produced data with the measurement profile to determine residual error data.
摘要:
A method of calibrating a surface measurement instrument includes rotating a work piece having an undulating surface on a turntable of a metrological apparatus; measuring the surface of the work piece at a plurality of rotational positions; analyzing the results of the measurement to determine parameters describing an error causing characteristic of the metrological apparatus; and using the determined parameters to correct measurement data for the error causing characteristic of the metrological apparatus.
摘要:
Light reflected by a sample surface region and a reference surface interfere. A detector senses light intensity at intervals during relative movement along a scan path between the sample surface and the reference surface to provide a series of intensity values representing interference fringes. A data processor receives first intensity data including a first series of intensity values resulting from a measurement operation on a surface area of a substrate and second intensity data including a second series of intensity values resulting from a measurement operation on a surface area of a thin film structure. A gain is determined for each thin film of the thin film structure. Substrate and apparent thin film structure surface characteristics are determined on the basis of the first and second intensity data, respectively. The apparent thin film structure surface characteristic is modified using the substrate surface characteristic and the determined gain or gains.
摘要:
A coherence scanning interferometer carries out: a coherence scanning measurement operation on a surface area using a low numeric aperture objective so that the pitch of the surface structure elements is less that the spread of the point spread function at the surface to obtain structure surface intensity data; and a coherence scanning measurement operation on a non-structure surface area to obtain non-structure surface intensity data. A frequency transform ratio determiner determines a frequency transform ratio related to the ratio between the structure surface intensity data and the non-structure surface intensity data. A structure provider sets that frequency transform ratio equal to an expression representing the electric field at the image plane of the interferometer in terms of surface structure element size (height or depth) and width-to-pitch ratio and derives the surface structure element size and width-to-pitch ratio using the frequency transform ratio.
摘要:
A coherence scanning interferometer carries out: a coherence scanning measurement operation on a surface area using a low numeric aperture objective so that the pitch of the surface structure elements is less that the spread of the point spread function at the surface to obtain structure surface intensity data; and a coherence scanning measurement operation on a non-structure surface area to obtain non-structure surface intensity data. A frequency transform ratio determiner determines a frequency transform ratio related to the ratio between the structure surface intensity data and the non-structure surface intensity data. A structure provider sets that frequency transform ratio equal to an expression representing the electric field at the image plane of the interferometer in terms of surface structure element size (height or depth) and width-to-pitch ratio and derives the surface structure element size and width-to-pitch ratio using the frequency transform ratio.
摘要:
A surface measurement instrument (1) for obtaining surface characteristic data of a sample surface (13) is described. Relative movement between a reference surface (11) and a sample support (15) is caused to occur while a sensor (16) senses light intensity at intervals along a scan path (SP) to provide a series of intensity values representing interference fringes produced by a region of a sample surface (13) during said relative movement and from which series of intensity values surface characteristic data can be derived. The sample support (15) is both translatable and tiltable in at least one direction perpendicular to a scan direction so that the sample support (15) can be both tilted to cause the scan path (SP) to be normal to the sample surface region and translated to compensate for translation movement due to the tilting.
摘要:
An interferometer system (2) directs light along a sample path (SP) towards a sample surface (7) and along a reference path (RP) towards a reference surface (6). Light reflected by a sample surface region and by the reference surface interfere. Sensing elements (SE) sense interference fringes at intervals along a scan path to provide a set of intensity data. A coherence peak position determiner (201) determines from the intensity data set a position on the scan path that corresponds to the height of the surface region. An amplitude determiner (202) determines amplitude data representing the amplitude of the intensity data at the determined height position. A modified surface height calculator (207) calculates modified height data by modifying the height data by a correction factor determined using the corresponding amplitude data and a correction parameter provided by a correction parameter provider (260).
摘要:
A system for measuring the angle of a beam of light is arranged so that a periodically varying pattern is formed on a photodetector, with a waveform property such as wavelength or phase of the pattern varying with the angle of the light. This may be done by creating interference between the light beam to be measured and a reference light beam having a fixed angle, or by forming a shadow on the detector array of one or more masks having a periodically varying transmission characteristic. One convenient way of processing the output of the photodetector array is to perform a fast Fourier transform, obtain therefrom one or more spatial frequency components, and extract therefrom a part which provides a measure of the angle of the light beam. The use of a periodically varying pattern on the photodetector array enables a substantial length of the array to be used in any particular measurement operation, and averages out individual performance differences between different elements of the photodetector array. The use of waveform properties enables convenient signal processing to be carried out, for example using well known fast Fourier transform techniques.
摘要:
A metrological apparatus has a movable arm 15 which moves up and down between two bearing members 13, both of which define datum positions for the arm 15. The arm 15 has air bearings on the bearing members 13, so that it adopts a position equidistant between the bearing members 13. In this way, the position of the arm 15 contains the average of the errors in the two datum positions defined by the bearing members 13. Where the bearing members 13 have symmetric errors, these will be cancelled. Since the path of maximum straightness of movement of the arm 15 is spaced from the bearing members 13, it is possible to put a workpiece 3 in this path and a turntable 5 for supporting the workpiece 3 is arranged to have its rotational axis in line with the path of maximum straightness. The vertical position of each end of the arm 15 is measured using a respective grating 25 and the average of the measurements is taken to provide an accurate measurement of the height of the centre point of the arm 15 over the workpiece 3, substantially free of Abbe errors.