Form measuring apparatus, method for measuring form, method for manufacturing structure and non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for setting measurement area

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9239219-B2
Application number	US-201313871203-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 26, 2013
Priority date	Oct 27, 2010
Publication date	Jan 19, 2016
Grant date	Jan 19, 2016

Abstract

There is provided a form measuring apparatus which is configured to perform measurement of a surface form of a surface of an object to be inspected having a three-dimensional shape, the form measuring apparatus including: a detecting section which performs detection of the surface form of the surface of the object having the three-dimensional form; and an area-setting section which sets, as a measurement area, an adjacent area adjacent to a designated area, based on form information of a form of the designated area.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A form measuring apparatus configured to perform measurement of a surface form of a surface of an object having a three-dimensional form, the apparatus comprising:
a detecting section which is configured to perform detection of the surface form of the object having the three-dimensional form; and
an area-setting section which is configured to set, as a measurement area, an outside area located outside of a designated area, based on form information of a form of the designated area,
wherein the detecting section is configured to perform the detection at first for the measurement area located outside of the designated area and thereafter to perform the detection for the designated area.

2. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the area-setting section is configured to set the measurement area based on the form information, of the designated area, which has been previously measured.

3. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the area-setting section is configured to set, as the measurement area, an adjacent area adjacent to the designated area.

4. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the area-setting section includes an external-interpolation processing section which is configured to calculate an outside area located at outside of the designated area based on a form measurement data obtained by the measurement.

5. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a range of the outside area located outside of the designated area has been previously determined.

6. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the external-interpolation processing section includes any one of a first order differential operator section, a second order differential operator section and a linear operator section each of which is configured to calculate a curve line approximate to the surface form of the object based on the form measurement data in the vicinity of an end portion of the designated area and which is configured to determine an extending direction of the outside area, based on the calculated curve line;
the first order differential operator section is configured to determine the extending direction of the outside area to be a direction which is same as inclination of the curve line;
the second order differential operator section is configured to determine the extending direction of the outside area to be a direction in which a change amount of the inclination of the curve line is constant; and
the linear operator section is configured to calculate the curve line approximate to the surface form of the object by collinear approximation, and to determine the extending direction of the outside area to be a direction in which a straight line obtained by the collinear approximation is extended.

7. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the external-interpolation processing section calculates a distance by which the measurement area is to be extended along the calculated curve line, within a range which is any one of:
a range defined by a distance from an end of the designated area up to a predetermined distance which has been previously determined;
a range defined by a distance until arriving at a predetermined limit area which has been previously determined, and
a range up to a position at which a limit position is included, the limit position being a position at which the object is capable of being present and which is calculated based on form information obtained from the form of the object in the designated area.

8. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the area-setting section includes an internal-interpolation processing section which is configured to obtain the form measurement data by internal-interpolation processing based on a form measurement data detected while moving the detecting section relative to and along the surface of the object; and
the external-interpolation processing section is configured to perform the external-interpolation processing based on the obtained form measurement data and based on the form measurement data obtained by the internal-interpolation processing.

9. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a driving mechanism which is configured to drive, in an orthogonal coordinate system defined by mutually orthogonal X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis, the detecting section relative to the object in a direction of the X-axis, a direction of the Y-axis, and a direction of the X-axis.

10. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the driving mechanism is configured to rotate the detecting section relative to the object about at least one of the X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis.

11. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the detecting section includes a detecting mechanism which includes at least one of:
an optical cutting type detecting section which is configured to obtain a form measurement data by the measurement based on a shading pattern formed on the surface of the object with a line-shaped light projected onto the object;
an obtained image transforming type detecting section which is configured to obtain the form measurement data based on an image data obtained by taking an image of the form of the object; and
a contact type detecting section which is configured to obtain the form measurement data by contacting the object.

12. The form measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an input section which is configured to be input information indicating a state for arranging the detecting section in the designated area.

13. A form measuring method comprising:
performing detection of a surface form of a surface of an object having a three-dimensional form;
setting, as a measurement area, an outside area located outside of a designated area, based on form information of a form of the designated area;
detecting at first for the measurement area located outside of the designated area and thereafter detecting for the designated area.

14. The form measuring method according to claim 13 , wherein the measurement area is set based on the form information of the designated area which has been previously measured.

15. The form measuring method according to claim 13 , wherein an adjacent area adjacent to the designated area is set as the measurement area.

16. The form measuring method according to claim 13 , wherein the measurement area is set as the outside area located outside of the designated area based on design information of the designated area.

17. The form measuring method according to claim 13 , wherein the measurement area which is located outside of the designated area includes a first area and a second area along a scanning direction of the detection; and
the detection is performed for the first area, the measurement area, and the second area in this order along the scanning direction.

18. A method for manufacturing a structure, comprising:
preparing design information regarding a form of the structure;
manufacturing the structure based on the design information;
measuring a form of the manufactured structure by using the form measuring method as defined in claim 13 to obtain form information about the form of the manufactured structure; and
performing inspection by comparing the form information with the design information.

19. The method for manufacturing the structure according to claim 18 , further comprising performing reprocessing of the structure based on a result of th

Assignees

• Nikon Corp

Inventors

• Kanto Kenta

Classifications

• G01B11/24 Primary

  for measuring contours or curvatures · CPC title

• Y10T29/49771

  Quantitative measuring or gauging · CPC title

• Y10T29/49718

  Repairing · CPC title

• G01B21/045

  Correction of measurements (G01B9/02055 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01B5/008 Primary

  using coordinate measuring machines · CPC title