Adaptive Measurement Method for Area Chromatic Confocal Microscopy

Although well known for its depth discerning capability, conventional confocal microscopy has limited application due to its slow scanning speed. From Nipkow disk to various programmable spatial light modulator, various research has been conducted with the aim of improving the speed of confocal microscopy. Nevertheless, the fundamental conflict between axial sensitivity and lateral density remains unsolved. In this report, a novel adaptive measurement method is proposed based on iterative refinement of the axial measurement as well as condensation of the lateral measurement grid. Initial experimental investigation has shown overall good measurement result with a specific type of artifacts due to inaccurate estimation in earlier measurement stages. Despite of this problem, the proposed system and the accompanying algorithms have shown great potential in improving the measurement speed of area chromatic confocal microscopy.