Confocal White Light Microscopy

Non-contact optical techniques for 3D surface data acquisition like short coherence (white light) interferometry, optical profilers or fringe projection are well established for applications with low surface complexity, where the average surface roughness amplitude is small and neglectable compared to the form amplitudes or where the aspect ratios of amplitudes and spacings are small. In general, those optical techniques do not have a good accuracy in reproducing the roughness part of surface data. We present an improved non-contact optical technique, a new confocal white light microscope, which allows a fast access to quantitative 3D topographical acquisition. The results of this new instrument are comparable to those of stylus instrument measurements, even on very complex surfaces.