Thickness measurement system for transparent plates using dual digital versatile disc (DVD) pickups

A low-cost high-precision thickness measurement system for transparent plates that uses dual digital versatile disc (DVD) pickups is proposed. The two DVD pickups are used as the transmitter and the receiver in the measurement system, respectively. One of the DVD pickups emits a laser to the other DVD pickup (receiver) and projects on the photodiode integrated circuit of the receiver. The transparent plate is placed in the optical path to change the focused point that will affect the focusing error signal (FES) of the receiver. Using the FES, a mathematical model for thickness measurement based on the geometric optical method is developed. The experimental results show that the accuracy is 1.5 microm, and the uncertainty is estimated to be +/-1.37 microm for the measured thickness of 150 microm.