Three-dimensional measurements with a novel technique combination of confocal and focus variation with a simultaneous scan

The most common optical measurement technologies used today for the three dimensional measurement of technical surfaces are Coherence Scanning Interferometry (CSI), Imaging Confocal Microscopy (IC), and Focus Variation (FV). Each one has its benefits and its drawbacks. FV will be the ideal technology for the measurement of those regions where the slopes are high and where the surface is very rough, while CSI and IC will provide better results for smoother and flatter surface regions. In this work we investigated the benefits and drawbacks of combining Interferometry, Confocal and focus variation to get better measurement of technical surfaces. We investigated a way of using Microdisplay Scanning type of Confocal Microscope to acquire on a simultaneous scan confocal and focus Variation information to reconstruct a three dimensional measurement. Several methods are presented to fuse the optical sectioning properties of both techniques as well as the topographical information. This work shows the benefit of this combination technique on several industrial samples where neither confocal nor focus variation is able to provide optimal results