1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical characteristic measurement apparatus for recognizing the best image plane position from the defocus characteristic of an optical system to be tested.
2. Description of the Related Art
In every optical field irrespective of a specific field to which an optical system is applied, an image condition is observed while moving a camera in the optical axis direction in proximity to a target image plane of an optical system to be tested, in order to measure the focusing position and the focal depth performance of the optical system to be tested. The measurement allows recognition of the difference between the best image plane position and the target image plane position of the optical system to be tested, and enables the difference to be reduced by correcting the shapes of components and adjusting the positions according to the value, as necessary. Instead thereof or in addition thereto, the measurement enables the appropriateness of depth allowance amount for variation in focal position caused by variation in temperature and a mechanical error caused by assembling into a higher unit or a product to be determined.
For instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-163227 discloses an apparatus for measuring the performance of a laser scanning optical system. This apparatus has a configuration that can arbitrarily, automatically change a relative separation between a jig for measuring an optical characteristic on which an optical system to be tested is mounted and a beam measurement unit configured by a CCD camera. This document also discloses testing of the depth allowance amount of a scanning lens by measuring a depth characteristic, which is referred to as depth curve.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H07-120691 describes variation in a beam spot diameter with respect to a defocus amount, which is a distance from a target image plane position, and discloses that asymmetric characteristics are exhibited according to positive or negative variation in distance.
In the case of evaluating the defocus characteristic of the optical system to be tested while varying one of the distance between an object and the optical system to be tested and the distance between the optical system to be tested and an evaluation apparatus, such as a screen and a camera, a following problem is caused. This problem is that, if the defocus amount is large with respect to the distance between the pupil of the optical system to be tested and an evaluation reference plane, it is difficult to determine the true best image plane position. The center of a region smaller than a region with an allowable spot diameter is typically adopted as the best image plane position. Unfortunately, the best image plane position varies with variation in value of the allowable spot diameter.
In order to solve the problem, according to the present invention, there is provided an optical characteristic measurement apparatus acquires a measurement value pertaining to an image characteristic of an optical system to be tested on a plurality of evaluation planes in proximity of an image plane of an object by the optical system to be tested, and measures an optical characteristic of the optical system to be tested based on each measurement value, comprising a measurement value correction unit correcting a measurement value pertaining to a width or a light intensity of one of a line spread distribution and a point spread distribution of a beam by the optical system to be tested, on the evaluation planes, wherein: in case where the measurement value pertains to the width of one of the line spread distribution and the point spread distribution of the beam, the image plane is regarded as an evaluation reference plane, and the measurement value correction unit outputs a corrected value such that when the evaluation plane approaches the optical system to be tested in comparison with the evaluation reference plane, the measurement value increases according to an approaching amount, and when the evaluation plane moves apart from the optical system to be tested in comparison with the evaluation reference plane, the measurement value decreases according to an amount of moving apart; in case where the measurement value pertains to the light intensity of one of the line spread distribution and the point spread distribution of the beam, the image plane is regarded as an evaluation reference plane, and the measurement value correction unit outputs a corrected value such that when the evaluation plane approaches the optical system to be tested in comparison with the evaluation reference plane, the measurement value decreases according to an approaching amount, and when the evaluation plane moves apart from the optical system to be tested in comparison with the evaluation reference plane, the measurement value increases according to an amount of moving apart; and the optical characteristic of the optical system to be tested is measured based on the corrected value having improved symmetry in comparison with the measurement value.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail in accordance with the accompanying drawings.
It is an object of the invention of this application to provide an optical characteristic measurement apparatus that can acquire the best image plane position of an optical system to be tested easily and correctly (with a small error).
Embodiments of the present invention are hereinafter described with reference to diagrams.
In
A beam from the light source optical system 22 passes through a stop 23 for changing the cross sectional diameter of the beam to a predetermined diameter and a rotating polygon mirror 24 (hereinafter, referred to as a polygon mirror) that reflects the laser beam from the stop 23 and guides the beam to lens 1 for laser scanning at a predetermined angle. The passing beam exits as a beam 25 from the measurement unit 20.
A measurement value correction unit 100 will be described later. The configuration includes an electric circuit for controlling light emission of the laser light source 21, a motor for rotationally driving the polygon mirror 24 to a predetermined position, and a drive circuit therefore. However, these components are not related to the gist of the present invention. Accordingly, description thereof is omitted. An evaluation reference plane 3 is the image plane of the optical system to be tested. A camera 4 focuses on an evaluation plane 5 to observe and detect this evaluation plane. More specifically, the camera includes an objective lens and an image sensor.
The evaluation plane 5 is the focus plane of the camera 4 in this embodiment. A plurality of the evaluation planes 5 is provided in proximity of the image plane of an object by the optical system to be tested along the optical axis direction. Here, a position of each of the evaluation planes 5 is different from that of the others along the optical axis direction of the optical system.
Stages 6 and 7 are drive units in X and Y directions, respectively. These stages drive the camera 4 to the position Ym in the image height direction, and drive the evaluation plane 5 to the position Xm in the defocus direction according to an instruction from a non-illustrated control unit.
The image of the stop 23 that is formed by the optical system 1 to be tested between the stop 23 in the measurement unit 20 and the evaluation plane 5 is referred to as an exit pupil. In the case where the optical system 1 to be tested has anamorphic characteristics that includes the exit pupils at different positions in two directions orthogonal to each other, the respective exit pupils appear on sections in the main scanning direction (first direction) and the sub-scanning direction (second direction). The exit pupil 8 is in the sub-scanning direction. The exit pupil 9 is in the main scanning direction. These exit pupils 8 and 9 reside at respective distances Ts and Tm from the evaluation reference plane 3. Here, the distances Ts and Tm are defined such that the light beam propagation direction is positive.
In
In
According to the above configuration, this embodiment performs following operations as illustrated in
First, the focus plane of the camera 4 is disposed at a desired image height Yo and a position of Xm=0, where Xm is the defocus amount from the reference evaluation plane 3, using the stages 6 and 7. Then, the laser light source 21 is turned on, and the polygon mirror is rotated such that the evaluation plane 5 is irradiated with the beam 25. The camera 4 is moved using the stages and the evaluation plane 5 is disposed along the beam 25 and at a position where Xm=−10 mm. Subsequently, the optical characteristic is measured.
Detection of Measurement Value
Measurement of optical characteristics is described with reference to
According to such processing, the LSF in
The PSF corresponds to a point spread distribution acquired by a point input using a pinhole. The LSF corresponds to a line spread distribution acquired by a line input using a slit.
Correction of Measurement Value
This embodiment includes a measurement value correction unit 100, which can be a CPU, that corrects the measurement value as follows. That is, in this embodiment, after measurement of Dy and Dz, the measurement value is corrected according to the distance from the evaluation plane to the exit pupil. It is provided that the distances Tm and Ts are taken between the respective exit pupils in the main and sub-scanning directions and the evaluation reference plane 3 along the X axis. The distances Tm and Ts may actually be measured. If the distances do not largely vary owing to variation in the optical system to be tested, design values may be adopted. Provided that corrected values Dya and Dza correspond to the LSF widths in the main and sub-scanning directions, respectively, the corrected values with improved symmetry in comparison with the measurement values are calculated according to following calculating equations.
Dya=Tm/(Tm−Xm)×Dy (1)
Dza=Ts/(Ts−Xm)×Dz (2)
Provided that K is the distance from the evaluation reference plane to the exit pupil in main and sub-scanning directions, L is the distance from the exit pupil to the evaluation plane, Do is the measurement value before correction and D is the measurement value after correction, Conditional Equations (1) and (2) are represented in a following form.
D=(K/L)×Do
This equation represents that the measurement value correction unit outputs values such that, when the evaluation plane 5 approaches the exit pupil, the corrected value increases with respect to the measurement value, while, when this plane moves away from the exit pupil, the corrected value decreases with reference to the measurement value.
Calculation Principle Concerning Correction
Hereinafter, a calculation principle concerning correction is described with reference to
For instance, one of the diffraction-limited image spot diameter and line width on each plane is proportional to the F number. Accordingly, these values on the evaluation plane 502 vary in comparison with the values on the evaluation reference plane, by
Fd/Fo=(T−Def)/T. (3)
That is, the line width measured by the evaluation plane 502 is required to be evaluated in consideration that the diffraction-limited value at the point varies by Conditional Equation (3) from the value on the evaluation reference plane 501. Thus, the measurement value divided by Conditional Equation (3) is used for evaluation. In
After the measurement and correction as described above, the camera 4 is moves by one millimeter in X direction along the beam 25 and similar measurement is performed, which is repeated for a predetermined times (e.g. ten times until Xm=10 mm). Instead, the measurement is repeated until LSF widths Dya and Dza in the main and sub-scanning direction after correction exceed a predetermined value.
Correction of Measurement Value in Sub-Scanning Direction
In quantitative view thereof, as to abscissa of
As to the ordinate of
To estimate the position of the best focus plane of the optical system to be tested, it is typical to evaluate the center position of a defocus range equal to or less than a threshold, which is one of the minimum line width and spot diameter increased by 10 to 20%. In this embodiment, based on the corrected value after correction, the best line width can be estimated as a value substantially identical to the design value. The width of depth to be the allowable line width can also be secured.
Correction of Measurement Value in Main Scanning Direction
The exit pupil position Tm in the main scanning direction is −300 mm. Correction in the main scanning direction as in the sub-scanning direction is performed using this value. However, with an allowable defocus range of about 10 mm, the correction according to Conditional Equation (1) is equal to or less than 5% (10/300). Accordingly, the evaluation may be performed only with correction in the sub-scanning direction without correction in the main scanning direction.
In the first embodiment, the measurement values are the LSF line widths in the main and sub-scanning directions. In this embodiment, the measurement values are the maximum intensities value Py and Pz of LSF in
Provided that Pya and Pza are LSF widths in the main and sub-scanning direction after correction, these values are corrected according to following equations.
Pya=(Tm−Xm)/Tm×Py (4)
Pza=(Ts−Xm)/Ts×Pz (5)
Provided that the distance from the evaluation reference plane to the exit pupil in the main and sub-scanning directions is K, the distance from the exit pupil to the evaluation plane is L, the measurement value is Do, and the measurement value after conversion is D, Conditional Equations (4) and (5) are represented in a following form.
D=(L/K)×Do
In the second embodiment, the measurement value is the maximum intensity of LSF. In this embodiment, the measurement value is the maximum intensity of PSF. In this embodiment, it is sufficient that correction of the light intensity of the beam which is inversely proportional to the correction of the beam diameter in the main and sub-scanning directions is performed simultaneously in the main and sub-scanning directions. That is, provided that Io is the measurement value before correction (maximum intensity of PSF) and Ia is the corrected value after correction,
Ia=(Tm−Xm)/Tm×(Ts−Xm)/Ts×Io. (6)
It is here provided that the product of the distance Tm in the main scanning direction from the evaluation reference plane to the exit pupil and the distance Ts in the sub-scanning direction from the evaluation reference plane to the exit pupil is Kyz, the distance in the main scanning direction from the exit pupil to the evaluation plane is Ly, and the distance in the sub-scanning direction from the exit pupil to the evaluation plane is Lz. It is further provided that the measurement value is Do, and the converted measurement value is D. Thus, Conditional Equation (6) is represented in a following form.
D=(Ly×Lz/Kyz)×Do (7)
In the case where the optical system to be tested has not anamorphic characteristics, provided that
L=Ly=Lz,
T=Tm=Tz,
Kyz=Tm×Ts and
K=T×T, Conditional Equation (7) can simply be represented as follows.
D=(L×L/K)×Do. (7′)
Variation
In the first embodiment, the measurement value is the width of LSF. In the second embodiment, the measurement value is the maximum intensity of LSF. In the third embodiment, the measurement value is the maximum intensity of PSF. Instead, the measurement value may be the width of PSF. In the case of using the width of PSF as the measurement value, Conditional Equation (1) and (2) can be used for correcting the measurement value as with the first embodiment.
In the second and third embodiments, the measurement value is the maximum intensity as the light intensity. Instead, the measurement value may be an average intensity. In the first to third embodiments, the correction is performed according to the distance between the exit pupil of the optical system to be tested and the evaluation plane. The correction may be performed according to, for instance, the distance between a rear side end of the optical system to be tested (instead of the exit pupil position of the optical system to be tested) and the evaluation plane.
In the first embodiment, the correction qualitatively using Conditional Equations (1) and (2) is described. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, any correction can be performed only provided that, qualitatively using the image plane as the reference plane, when the evaluation plane approaches the optical system to be tested, the measurement value increases according to the approaching amount, and, when the evaluation plane moves apart from the optical system to be tested, the measurement value decreases according to the amount of moving apart.
Likewise, in the second and third embodiments, the correction qualitatively using Conditional Equations (4) and (5) or Conditional Equations (6), (7) and (7′) is described. The present invention is not limited thereto. That is, any correction can be performed only provided that, qualitatively using image plane as the reference plane, when the evaluation plane approaches the optical system to be tested, the measurement value decreases according to the approaching amount, and, when the evaluation plane moves apart from the optical system to be tested, the measurement value increases according to the amount of moving apart.
The present invention can correctly acquire the best image plane position of the optical system to be tested only with the arithmetic process of the measurement value, basically without any change in configuration of the conventional apparatus. Accordingly, the target values for correcting the mold and lens become correct. As a result, development efficiency and quality of components, units and products are improved, and the cost is reduced.
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-082796, filed Apr. 4, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
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