Interferometric determination of distance change with laser diode, high bandwidth detection and fast signal processing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9310178-B2
Application number	US-201414307246-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 17, 2014
Priority date	Jun 18, 2013
Publication date	Apr 12, 2016
Grant date	Apr 12, 2016

Abstract

Method and systems for determining a change of distance to an object by interferometry with emitting measurement laser light from a laser diode are disclosed. The method may include receiving at least a part of the measurement laser light, superimposing the reflected measurement laser light with a reference laser light and thereby providing at an interferometric phase and determining the change of distance to the object depending on the superimposition. In some embodiments, the measurement laser light may be emitted with low coherence and broad spectral bandwidth. An emitting wavelength of the measurement laser light may be fluctuating hop-freely within the spectral bandwidth causing interferometric phase fluctuations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for determining a change of distance to an object by interferometry with emitting measurement laser light from a laser diode,
receiving at least a part of the measurement laser light reflected from the object,
superimposing the reflected measurement laser light with a reference laser light and thereby providing an interferometric phase and
determining the change of distance to the object depending on the superimposition, wherein
the measurement laser light being emitted with low coherence and broad spectral bandwidth, wherein an emitting wavelength of the measurement laser light is fluctuating hop-freely within the spectral bandwidth causing interferometric phase fluctuations, wherein the measurement laser light is emitted with a coherence length between one and three meters,
continuously detecting the interferometric phase with a first detection rate, the detection rate and a rate for processing of the detected interferometric phase being high enough that the interferometric phase fluctuations are continuously incrementally tracked so that successive interferometric phase states provided by successive detections of the interferometric phase differ by a phase shift of less than π,
averaging the detected phase fluctuations for a defined averaging time period and deriving an averaged phase, and
determining the change of distance to the object with a second detection rate in dependency on the averaged phase, the second detection rate being correlated with the averaging time period.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a first, a second or more interferometric signals are provided by continuously detecting the superimposition of the measurement laser light with the reference laser light with the first detection rate.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein
the interferometric phase and the interferometric phase fluctuations are derived from at least the first and the second interferometric signals and/or
the change of distance to the object is determined on basis of at least the first and the second interferometric signals, wherein a direction of the change of distance is derived depending on a change of at least the first and/or the second interferometric signal.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the first and/or second or more interferometric signals are modulated in a defined manner, wherein
the modulated first and/or second or more interferometric signals are detected in order to calculate an offset and/or a normalization for monitoring of the interferometric signals, to calculate the offset and/or the normalization from at least the first and the second interferometric signals while modulating, and/or
an absolute distance to the object is derived on basis of the modulated first and/or second or more interferometric signals.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein modulating the first, second or more interferometric signals is realized by
periodically alternately varying the emitting wavelength of the measurement laser light by varying the current and/or the temperature of the laser diode and/or by varying the cavity length, and/or
periodically alternately varying an optical path length for the measurement laser light or for the reference laser light.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein an actual absorbing level of the measurement laser light is measured in dependency on the emitting wavelength and the emitting wavelength of the measurement laser light is adjusted in dependency on the actual absorbing level in an automated and continuous manner, wherein the emitting wavelength is adjusted by variation of current and/or temperature and/or cavity length of the laser diode.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein an error value is calculated depending on an absorbing level measured while modulating the first and/or second or more interferometric signals in the defined manner, wherein the adjusting of the emitting wavelength is performed in dependency on the calculated error value, wherein the error value is calculated by digital processing.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the error value is used for fine adjusting a conversion factor, the conversion factor defining a conversion from continuously determined phase values to distance change values, in order to increase accuracy for the determined change of distance.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the interferometric phase fluctuations are continuously incrementally tracked so that successive interferometric phase states provided by successive detections of the interferometric phase differ a fraction of H.

10. An interferometer for determining a change of distance to an object, the interferometer comprising:
a laser diode for emission of measurement laser light,
a reference arm defining a reference optical path length for a reference laser light, wherein the reference laser light is derived from the measurement laser light by use of a beam splitter,
a measurement arm defining a measurement optical path length for the measurement laser light,
receiving means for receiving at least a part of the measurement laser light reflected from the object,
superimposition means for superimposing of the measurement laser light with the reference laser light and thereby providing an interferometric phase,
a detection unit for continuously detecting the superimposition of the measurement laser light with the reference laser light and providing the interferometric phase and
a controlling and processing unit at least for determining the change of distance to the object depending on the superimposition,
wherein the laser diode is configured so that the measurement laser light is emitted with low coherence and broad spectral bandwidth,
wherein an emitting wavelength of the measurement laser light is fluctuating hop-freely within the spectral bandwidth causing interferometric phase fluctuations,
wherein the measurement laser light is emitted with a coherence length between one and three meters,
wherein the controlling and processing unit is adapted for
execution of a distance measurement functionality on execution of which the determination of the change of distance to the object is performed by continuously detecting the interferometric phase with the detection unit with a first detection rate, the detection rate and a rate for processing of the detected interferometric phase being high enough that the interferometric phase fluctuations are continuously incrementally tracked so that successive interferometric phase states provided by successive detections of the interferometric phase differ by a phase shift of a fraction of π,
averaging the detected phase fluctuations for a defined averaging time period and deriving an averaged phase, and
determining the change of distance to the object with a second detection rate in dependency on the averaged phase, the second detection rate being correlated with the averaging time period.

11. The interferometer according to claim 10 , wherein the superimposition means being built so that the measurement laser light is superimposed with the reference laser light so that a first, a second or more superimposed light signals are provided, wherein the superimposition means comprise a binary phase grating.

12. The interferometer according to claim 11 , wherein the detection unit comprises a first, a second or more detection components, wherein each of the detection components is arranged for detection of one of the first, second or more superimposed light signals and a first, second or more interferometric signals are providable by the detection components, wherein the detection unit comprises:

Assignees

• Hexagon Technology Ct Gmbh

Inventors

• Salvadé Yves
• Przygodda Frank
• Rohner Marcel

Classifications

• G01S17/32

  using transmission of continuous waves, whether amplitude-, frequency-, or phase-modulated, or unmodulated · CPC title

• G01B11/026

  by measuring distance between sensor and object (G01B11/0608 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01B9/02081

  simultaneous quadrature detection, e.g. by spatial phase shifting · CPC title

• G01S17/34 Primary

  using transmission of continuous, frequency-modulated waves while heterodyning the received signal, or a signal derived therefrom, with a locally-generated signal related to the contemporaneously transmitted signal · CPC title

• G01S17/50

  Systems of measurement based on relative movement of target · CPC title