Programmable Interferometry

Bruce E Truax

doi:10.1117/12.939586

23 March 1987 Programmable Interferometry

Bruce E Truax

Proceedings Volume 0680, Surface Characterization and Testing; (1987) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.939586
Event: 30th Annual Technical Symposium, 1986, San Diego, United States

Abstract

The advent of automatic data processing for interferometry greatly reduced the complexity of interferometric testing, thereby significantly increasing its usage both within and outside of the optics community. A great many of these new applications require special data processing and output data not normally used for testing lenses. To address these new measurement problems many data analysis programs were written ranging from advanced analysis of wavefronts (i.e., Zernike Polynominals, Point Spread Function, Modulation Transfer Function) to analysis of mechanical surfaces such as Winchester disk read/write heads. Some of these programs were very specific to a particular application and some tried to be general and as such became cumbersome. Even with much of this software available for sale to the general public most applications other than simple surface and lens measurements usually cannot be solved directly using the available programs. In an attempt to solve this problem, we have developed software for interferometry that allows users to easily develop their own measurement routines. The solution was to take a version of the BASIC programming language and add the commands necessary to do interferometry. This software is resident in a processor that can easily be adapted to a large number of interferometry applications. By using this processor and its associated software with an appropriate interferometer, it is possible for the user to tailor the measurement to a particular application. This can be very useful in an optical production shop where each different testing application can have its own program. If the program is written properly, the operator will not have to set up any default conditions or format the output; the operation of the program can be reduced to the pushing of a single button and the output will be formatted properly for that particular test. Examples of this system in actual optical shop testing situations will be discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Bruce E Truax "Programmable Interferometry", Proc. SPIE 0680, Surface Characterization and Testing, (23 March 1987); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.939586

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