A hybrid optical-digital image processing method for surface inspection

  • Authors:
  • Friedrich Wahl;Samuel So;Kwan Wong

  • Affiliations:
  • IBM General Products Division, Rüschlikon, Switzerland;IBM General Products Division, San Jose, California;IBM General Products Division, San Jose, California

  • Venue:
  • IBM Journal of Research and Development
  • Year:
  • 1983

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.01

Visualization

Abstract

A hybrid measurement technique is proposed for high-precision surface inspection. The technique uses an interferometer to image microscopic surface defects. In order to quantify the degree of various surface defects, the interferograms are scanned, digitized, and subsequently converted to a binary image by using an adaptive thresholding technique which takes into account the inhomogeneity of the imaging system. A new misalignment measure for binary patterns identifies the "straightness" of the fringe lines. It is shown that the resulting percentages of misaligned picture elements conform fairly well with the degree of various surface defects.