2500-Channel single-shot areal profilometer using hyperspectral interferometry with a pinhole array

Surface profilometry techniques such as coherent scanning interferometry or focus variation require long scan times and are thus vulnerable to environmental disturbance. Hyperspectral interferometry (HSI) overcomes the problem by recording all the spatial and spectral information necessary to reconstruct a 2D surface height map in a single shot. In this paper, we present a new HSI system that uses a pinhole array to provide the necessary gaps for the spectral information. It is capable of measuring 2500 independent points, twice the previous maximum number, with a maximum unambiguous depth range of ∼825 µm and a larger maximum surface tilt angle of 33.3 mrad. The use of phase information allows height to be measured to a precision of ∼6 nm, an order of magnitude improvement on previous HSI systems.