Micromachined Profile Measurement by Means of Optical Inverse Scattering Phase Method

Abstract A new optical measuring method based on the inverse scattering phase retrieval is presented in this paper, which will be able to be applied to in-process measurement of micro-machined surface profile with an accuracy of nanometer order. In order to verify the validity of the proposed method, first, computer simulations of reconstruction of the different fine groove models are performed. Second, the inverse scattering phase construction system is developed and the measurements of the symmetric and non-symmetric fine triangular grooves which is micro-machined by ultra precision diamond turning are carried out. Consequently, it is found that the proposed measurement method is effective for reconstructing the profile of a submicrometer size workpiece without scanning a probe or a stylus.