Custom chromatic confocal microscope for surface profilometry

In this work, a surface profiling system is introduced, employing a custom-designed chromatic confocal (CC) distance sensor. Today’s commercial sensors based on the CC principle have a major drawback of effectively coupling light from the illumination source into the optical imaging system, mainly due to etendue mismatch. Consequently, a substantial amount of light is lost, significantly reducing the overall SNR of the system. This limitation restricts its applicability primarily to highly reflective surfaces. To address this issue, an etendue-matched optical system is proposed, that incorporates an innovative superluminescent light source. Through this approach, the system achieves 4 orders of magnitudes higher illumination intensity concentrated within the focus spot compared to existing devices in the current market.