The accurate knowledge about the refractive index of optical materials is crucial for the production of high
performance optical components. It is known that the highest accuracy of refractive index measurements can
be achieved with goniometric measurements of prisms prepared from the optical material. The most common
approach is the method of minimum deviation of Newton-Fraunhofer. The apex angle is measured with a high
precision in reflection with an autocollimator and the angle of refraction is measured in transmission using an
additional collimator. There are also other goniometric approaches like the Abb´e method employing a purely
reflective setup with an autocollimator. In this paper we discuss and compare the two different goniometric
approaches.
With the upcoming Ultra High Definition (UHD) cameras, the accurate alignment of optical systems with respect to the UHD image sensor becomes increasingly important. Even with a perfect objective lens, the image quality will deteriorate when it is poorly aligned to the sensor. For evaluating the imaging quality the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) is used as the most accepted test. In the first part it is described how the alignment errors that lead to a low imaging quality can be measured. Collimators with crosshair at defined field positions or a test chart are used as object generators for infinite-finite or respectively finite-finite conjugation. The process how to align the image sensor accurately to the optical system will be described. The focus position, shift, tilt and rotation of the image sensor are automatically corrected to obtain an optimized MTF for all field positions including the center. The software algorithm to grab images, calculate the MTF and adjust the image sensor in six degrees of freedom within less than 30 seconds per UHD camera module is described. The resulting accuracy of the image sensor rotation is better than 2 arcmin and the accuracy position alignment in x,y,z is better 2 μm. Finally, the process of gluing and UV-curing is described and how it is managed in the integrated process.
The demand for lasers with specific intensity distributions has led to the development of high power VCSEL systems.
These consist of arrays of high power VCSELs combined with microlenses allowing for intensity distributions tailored to
the needs of each specific application.
A Shack-Hartmann based instrument has been developed for the measurement of these lenses in reflection as well as in
transmission. In addition the form tools used for the microlens production can be measured with this set up. The
comparison of measured surface profiles and optical properties with the particular design values then allows for
optimization of the manufacturing process.
For any kind of optical compound systems the precise geometric alignment of every single element according to the
optical design is essential to obtain the desired imaging properties. In this contribution we present a measurement system
for the determination of the complete set of geometric alignment parameters in assembled systems. The deviation of
each center or curvature with respect to a reference axis is measured with an autocollimator system. These data are
further processed in order to provide the shift and tilt of an individual lens or group of lenses with respect to a defined
reference axis. Previously it was shown that such an instrument can measure the centering errors of up to 40 surfaces
within a system under test with accuracies in the range of an arc second. In addition, the relative distances of the
optical surfaces (center thicknesses of lens elements, air gaps in between) are optically determined in the same
measurement system by means of low coherent interferometry. Subsequently, the acquired results can be applied for the
compensation of the detected geometric alignment errors before the assembly is finally bonded (e.g., glued).
The presented applications mainly include measurements of miniaturized lens systems like mobile phone optics.
However, any type of objective lens from endoscope imaging systems up to very complex objective lenses used in
microlithography can be analyzed with the presented measurement system.
In dimensional nano- and micrometrology, single sensors are often combined into an array of sensors to enable faster
measurements by utilizing parallel data acquisition. If combined with appropriate scanning techniques, the use of sensor
arrays additionally facilitates the estimation and correction of systematic sensor errors and, thus, enables more accurate
measurements. To exploit these options, the arrays have to be aligned carefully with respect to the scanning direction,
and, in addition, the lateral distances between the sensors have to be determined with sufficient accuracy.
This presentation describes a method to align an optical distance sensor array parallel to the direction of a linear translation
stage, which is used to scan the specimen under test, and it describes a method to evaluate and determine the sensor
distances with high accuracy.
Alignment is a multi step procedure: The first step is to orientate a step edge profile perpendicular to the scanning direction
of the sensor using an M-array and an auxiliary CCD camera. In a second step, the line sensor array is scanned
across the edge using different rotation angles of the sensor. The positions where the different sensors cross the edge are
evaluated to obtain the sensor orientation relative to the scanning direction, the distances between the sensors, and their
transversal displacements.
We will show experimental data obtained with an optical line sensor array of three single sensors. The measurements
will be compared to simulated data carried out with a virtual experiment programmed at PTB. Relevant error sources are
assessed and the limitation of the method is discussed.
Aspherical lenses are usually generated by a multi-axis computer numerically controlled machine and axis guidance
errors as well as wear and environmental influences lead to unavoidable form deviations. Therefore, the manufacturing
process is often performed iteratively with intermitting measurement steps outside of the manufacturing machine and
repositioning the sample into the machine, which is causing additional errors.
We present a new deflectometric sensor designed for the machine integration, so that the form measurement is done
inside of the manufacturing machine and errors due to the sample removal are avoided.
The compact and robust sensor is based on the deflectometry principle. It detects the deflection angle of a focused laser
beam on the surface under test and measures the local slope angle of the surface in 2D. By scanning the specimen's
surface using the machine axes and integration of the slope angles, the topography can be calculated. The angular
measurement range of +/-9.5° permits the measurement of highly aspheric surfaces, e.g. at a clear aperture of 8 mm a
maximum deviation of more than 500 μm can be measured at a resolution on the nanometer scale.
One of the most commonly performed ophthalmic surgeries is the replacement of the eye lens by a synthetic intraocular
lens.
Because of the trend to match the intraocular lens with the properties of the individual eye, intricate designs for IOLs
have been developed. Multifocal, diffractive as well as aspheric designs demand for elaborate measurement and analysis
options.
Various measurement methods have evolved including techniques which analyze the image itself or the emerging wavefront. In order to understand the advantages of these different methods intraocular lenses of various designs have been measured and analyzed under miscellaneous conditions. Measurement results of this comparison will be presented.
With the recently emerged large volume production of miniature aspheric lenses for a wide range of applications, a new
fast fully automatic high resolution wavefront measurement instrument has been developed.
The Shack-Hartmann based system with reproducibility better than 0.05 waves is able to measure highly aspheric optics
and allows for real time comparison with design data.
Integrated advanced analysis tools such as calculation of Zernike coefficients, 2D-Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), Point Spread Function (PSF), Strehl-Ratio and the measurement of effective focal length (EFL) as well as flange focal length (FFL) allow for the direct verification of lens properties and can be used in a development as well as in a production environment.
Aspheric lenses are of increasing importance in compact imaging systems. New developments in production
technologies have led to the so called wafer level production with several thousands of lenses on a single wafer.
This high volume production demands fast testing equipment which allows for the characterization of complete imaging
systems as well as of all of its single components. In most of the cases conventional methods cannot be used to measure
single lenses or objectives in earlier production states. Although e.g. the measurement of the modulation transfer
function is a well established method for fast and accurate quality inspection of entire objectives it has its limitation for
single lenses.
Due to its very large dynamic range the Shack-Hartmann sensor is able to measure a very broad range of spherical and
aspherical lenses as well as partially or fully assembled objectives. With the combination of a fast high accuracy
wavefront sensor and special positioning algorithms which allow for high throughput in mass production a new flexible
instrument has been developed.
Aspheric lenses are of increasing importance in the production of compact imaging systems. High volume productions
of such imaging systems demand fast test systems to check the quality of the lenses. The measurement of the
modulation transfer function has its limitation for aspheric lenses that are used to correct a lens system for good image
quality, but does not have good imaging capabilities as a single lens. Measuring the wavefront of aspheric lenses with a
Shack-Hartmann sensor gives a flexible tool to determine the properties of the lenses. We present measurement
principle, capabilities and different configurations of the lens testing system WaveMaster® of Trioptics GmbH.
Using a high resolution two-dimensional angle sensor, 3D-Deflectometry determines the local slopes of an aspheric
surface. The sensor scans the surface in spherical coordinates thus measuring the deviation from a reference sphere.
A new fault tolerant software algorithm transfers slope information into surface topography data simultaneously
correcting for systematic errors of the instrument.
In this way various surface types can be characterized; convex and concave standard shapes as well as toric or even free
form surfaces.
We present an automatic bonding station which is able to center and bond individual lenses or doublets to a barrel with
sub micron centring accuracy. The complete manufacturing cycle includes the glue dispensing and UV curing. During
the process the state of centring is continuously controlled by the vision software, and the final result is recorded to a file
for process statistics. Simple pass or fail results are displayed to the operator at the end of the process.
The measurement of the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) has become the most accepted test in the range of quality
control of optics. Years ago only high quality optics like e.g. satellite or professional camera objectives have been MTFtested.
Nowadays even simple optical systems like cell phone cameras objectives are 100% tested. But not only single
objectives have to be tested. If a perfect objective is badly aligned with respect to the sensor the result will be a bad MTF
too. Therefore it is also recommended for the final camera inspection to measure the total MTF of the system objective
plus sensor (CMOS or CCD). TRIOPTICS developed a MTF equipment to measure the MTF on 9 different field
positions and different object distances of a complete camera in a few seconds. The system comprises a special target
generator with slanted crosses as targets and new developed software to grab images and to calculate the MTF of the
complete camera in realtime.
The optical imaging quality of objectives is mainly influenced by the errors of the mechanical alignment of the single
elements. TRIOPTICS has developed a new technology called MultiLens® in order to measure the centering error of
single lenses as well as complete objectives. It is possible to measure the tilt of each single optical surface inside of a
mounted objective with highest precision. We achieve accuracies in the range of an arc second. During the measurement
the deviation of each centre of curvature with respect to a reference axis is measured. These data are further processed in
order to provide the shift and tilt of an individual lens or group of lenses with respect to a given reference axis. The
knowledge of the centering error can be used to align actively single optical elements.
Applications mainly include the measurement of cell phone and digital camera lenses. However, any type of objective
lens from endoscope up to very complex objective lenses used in microlithography can be measured with highest
accuracy.
The size and the focal length of camera objectives (e.g. cell phones or digital cameras) are becoming smaller and smaller.
At the same time the quality requirements are increasing. Besides surface accuracy, the imaging quality of the complete
optics is mainly influenced by the alignment errors of the single elements. TRIOPTICS has developed a new technology
called MultiLens in order to measure the centering errors of all single surfaces within an objective lens with up to 40
surfaces or more. We achieve accuracies in the range of an arc second. During the measurement the deviation of each
center or curvature with respect to a reference axis is measured. These data are further processed in order to provide the
shift and tilt of an individual lens or group of lenses in respect to a given reference axis (Patent pending Ref. 1).
Applications mainly include the measurement of cell phone and digital camera lenses. However, any type of objective
lens from endoscope up to very complex objective lenses used in microlithography can be measured with highest
accuracy. The method has been extended to measure also the aspherical axis of lenses.
A compact scanning deflectometer is presented for the fast topography measurement of semiconductor wafers. The technique, however, is equally well suited for any flat or slightly curved specular reflective surface. The measurement principle is based on the 2D measurement of the local slope vector by means of a narrow Laser beam scanning rapidly across the sample surface. The fast linear scanning is combined with sample rotation to measure the complete surface of circular samples. There is no physical contact to the measured surface. The topography of the sample is derived from the slope data by a novel 2D integration method, which is robust with respect to noise in the slope signals. We present the full-size topography of unpatterned and patterned wafers of different polishing quality.
During the last years compact CMOS imaging cameras have grown into high volume applications such as mobile phones, PDAs, etc. In order to insure a constant quality of the lenses of the cameras, MTF is used as a figure of merit. MTF is a polychromatic, objective test for imaging lens quality including diffraction effects, system aberrations and surface defects as well. The draw back of MTF testing is that the proper measurement of the lens MTF is quite cumbersome and time consuming. In the current investigation we designed, produced and tested a new semi-automated MTF set up that is able to measure the polychromatic lens system MTF at 6 or more field points at best focus in less than 6 seconds. The computed MTF is a real diffraction MTF derived from a line spread function (not merely a contrast measurement). This enables lens manufacturers to perform 100% MTF testing even in high volume applications. Using statistic tools to analyze the data also gives possibility to find even small systematic errors in the production like shift or tilt of lenses and lens elements. Using this as feedback the quality of the product can be increased. The system is very compact and can be put easily in an assembly line. Besides design and test of the MTF set up correlation experiments between several testers have been carried out. A correlation of better than 6% points for all tested systems at all fields has been achieved.
The measurement of the topography or the nanotopography of large wafers up to 450 mm in diameter with satisfactory lateral resolution and nanometer uncertainty is still an unsolved problem. The topography of wafers covers a relatively large measurement range as wafers have surfaces with a so-called "slightly unflat" topography which mostly exceeds the measurement capabilities of interferometers. For the ultraprecise and traceable measurement of the slope and topography of slightly unflat optical surfaces, a novel scanning deflectometry principle has been developed. An uncertainty of the topography in the nanometer range will be achieved, as this principle minimizes error influences and allows a highly precise calibration of the angle measuring device. The main goal is to use this principle for the ultraprecise measurement of the nanotopography of large wafers.
The measurement principle is based on the analysis of differences of reflection angles obtained at surface points which are separated by large lateral shears. It does not rely on external reference surfaces of matched topography and in first and second order is independent of any stage errors and the whole-body motion of the specimen. The measurands are directly traced back to the base units of angle and length. The specific idea of wafer measurement is to combine rotational and linear scanning with the measurement of slope difference vectors and to arrive at an unambiguous solution for the topography and nanotopography. The equations with the slope difference vectors are solved to reconstruct the slope vectors, as newly developed mathematical algorithms allow the surface slope to be reconstructed from slope differences for two different shears. This is reached by applying natural extensions and shearing transfer functions by a mathematically exact method over the whole surface area. Further the differential equations for the slope vectors are solved to unambiguously reconstruct the topography. With this method it is possible to achieve nanometer uncertainty and at the same time a high lateral resolution, short measurement times and the possibility of mastering the large measurement range necessary for slightly unflat wafer surfaces.
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