Complex roughness determination process of surfaces obtained by laser confocal microscope

This paper deals with determination of surface roughness using laser confocal microscope Zeiss LSM-700. Complex software utility LsmReader developed by us is presented in this paper. It consists of different software modules. First step was to decode native microscope data format and re-build scanned surface in 2D and 3D. 2D representation is suitable for further mathematical and statistical analysis. 3D model is used for detailed surface analysis. 3D module allows to manipulate with model in various ways. After successful surface reconstruction roughness determination module was implemented. During development various problems appeared. For precise roughness evaluation it was necessary to implement profile levelling and deviation caused by different microscope setup compensation. Functionality of utility was validated using certified roughness standard.