Figure 1. t-Nova-850H 3D surface profile sensor booth exhibit
Highly-functional Material Week was held at Makuhari Messe in Tokyo, Japan from Wednesday, October 4 to Friday, October 6. At Novitec’s Photonix booth, Meterlab unveiled for the first time the t-Nova-850H, a 3D surface profile measurement sensor that uses line spectroscopy developed by Meterlab, as shown in Figure 1. During the exhibition we performed real-time, full-area surface profile measurements on certified step-height standard specimens with various heights. The demonstration showed that the entire surface profile of a specimen can be measured using only single-direction scanning.
Figure 3. (a) Hyperspectral image acquired with t-Nova-850H, (b) resulting profile
t-Nova-H uses Meterlab’s hyperspectral imaging spectrometer s-Nova-H as its sensor. The s-Nova-H was introduced last year at Photonix 2022 as a line measurement sensor for film and glass thickness. The surface measurement workflow with t-Nova-H is summarized in Figure 2. When t-Nova-H measures a single line on a target that has step patterns, it acquires hyperspectral images for each point along that line as shown in Figure 3(a). By Fourier-transforming the interference pattern at each spatial position to calculate distance, a line surface profile like Figure 3(b) is obtained. To obtain the full 3D surface profile, it is sufficient to scan the specimen in just one direction.
Figure 4. (a) Measurement specimen (KRISS step standard reference), (b) measured 3D surface profile of the specimen
For the t-Nova-850H demonstration we measured the surface profile of a certified step standard reference specimen purchased from KRISS, as shown in Figure 4(a). A single line measurement direction was set horizontally across the specimen, and the scanning direction proceeded from the top to the bottom of the specimen following the surface. By measuring the line surface profile at each position and assembling them along the scan axis, the 3D surface profile in Figure 4(b) was obtained.
Figure 5. t-Nova-850H product explanation/demonstration
At this year’s exhibition, many companies showed strong interest not only in the t-Nova series for simultaneous thickness and refractive index measurement and thin-film thickness measurement, but also in the high-speed s-Nova spectrometer series. The t-Nova-850H demonstration for 3D surface profile measurement, introduced for the first time this year, also attracted significant attention. When used in roll-to-roll processes, the t-Nova-H sensor can measure the entire surface profile of a moving substrate without mechanical scanning, enabling full-area quality control of manufactured products.
