Vicinal light inspection of translucent materials
| DWPI Title: Inspecting non-patterned area of surface of translucent ceramic substrate, comprises illuminating translucent substrate by light source with vicinal illumination, and receiving first and second image data representative of imaged areas |
| Abstract: The present invention includes methods and apparatus for inspecting vicinally illuminated non-patterned areas of translucent materials. An initial image of the material is received. A second image is received following a relative translation between the material being inspected and a device generating the images. Each vicinally illuminated image includes a portion having optimal illumination, that can be extracted and stored in a composite image of the non-patterned area. The composite image includes aligned portions of the extracted image portions, and provides a composite having optimal illumination over a non-patterned area of the material to be inspected. The composite image can be processed by enhancement and object detection algorithms, to determine the presence of, and characterize any inhomogeneities present in the material. |
| Use: The method is useful for inspecting a non-patterned area of a surface of a translucent substrate such as ceramic- and glass substrate. |
| Advantage: The method is capable of easily, economically and reliably inspecting a non-patterned area of a surface of a translucent substrate with high sensitivity and without any defects to the substrate. |
| Novelty: The method comprises illuminating the translucent substrate (108) by a light source with vicinal illumination, receiving first image data representative of first imaged area within the non-patterned area of the translucent substrate, displacing the translucent substrate relative to the image generating device by a distance equal to the reference length, receiving a second image data representative of second imaged area within the non-patterned area of the translucent substrate, and extracting first and second data subsets from the first and second image data respectively. |
| Filed: 12/4/2008 |
| Application Number: US2008328472A |
| Tech ID: SD 7614.2 |
| This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-NA0003525 awarded by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The Government has certain rights in the invention. |
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