Abstract
Abstract: In order to achieve the precise measurement of the lenses axial space, a new lenses axial space ray tracing measurement (ASRTM) is proposed based on the geometrical theory of optical image. For an assembled lenses with the given radius of curvature rn and refractive index nn of every lens, ASRTM uses the annular laser differential confocal chromatography focusing technique (ADCFT) to achieve the precise focusing at the vertex position Pn of its inner-and-outer spherical surface Sn and obtain the coordinate zn corresponding to the axial movement position of ASRTM objective, and then, uses the ray tracing facet iterative algorithm to precisely determine the vertex position Pn of every spherical surface by these coordinates zn, refractive index nn and spherical radius rn, and thereby obtaining the lenses inner axial space dn. The preliminary experimental results indicate that ASRTM has a relative measurement error of less than 0.02%.
©2010 Optical Society of America
1. Introduction
In the assembly of high performance optical systems such as lithography lens, high precision objective lens and satellite camera, and so on, the axial space between lenses must be determined precisely. In the lithography lens, the axial space deviation of each singlet brings about the aberrations such as spherical aberration, astigmatism, coma and distortion, and the measurement accuracy of the axial space between lenses should be achieved at the micrometer level [1]. At present, the inner axial space of lenses are ensured by machining and assembly, and the lens axial space is calculated by the thickness of singlet and the thickness of lenses obtained through the contact altimeter in the assembly [2]. Mirau interferometer can precisely identify the vertex position of the outermost surface in the assembly to control the axial space between lenses, but it cannot precisely identify the vertex position Pn of the inner surface of lenses [3]. Whether the inner axial space of lenses fit the design parameter can be analyzed only by its image property. In fact, the lens axial space is one of the main factors having effect on image property. Therefore, the non-contact and high-precision measurement of the spaces between lenses is needed to reduce the inner axial space error in the assembly, which has not been found so far.
As shown in Fig. 1 , in order to achieve the high-precision measurement of the assembled lenses inner axial space dn, the non-contact optical chromatography measurement needs to be used for precise obtaining the vertex position pn of the lens’ spherical surface Sn. But the precision of the vertex position pn depends on the lens’ radii rn and refractive index nn, and the figure error and the axial position zn of the lens L1. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain the inner axial space dn of the assembled lenses using the direct measurement.
Here, a new axial space ray tracing measurement (ASRTM) is proposed for the lenses inner axial space measurement based on the geometrical theory of optical image. For an assembled lenses with the given radius of curvature rn and refractive index nn of every lens, ASRTM uses the optical focusing technique to achieve the high-precision chromatography focusing on the assembled lenses’ inner-and-outer spherical surface Sn and obtain the precise coordinate zn of the objective movement position corresponding to the vertex position Pn of the lenses’ inner-and-outer sphere, where n=1, 2, 3, 4. And then, ASRTM uses the ray tracing facet iterative algorithm to precisely determine the vertex position Pn of every spherical surface Sn by these coordinates zn, refractive index nn and spherical radius rn, and thereby achieving the high-precision measurement of lenses’ inner axial space dn.
The key in ASRTM for the high-precision measurement of lenses’ axial space dn is how to achieve the precise focusing on the inner spherical surface Sn and obviously reduce the adverse effect of the figure error of the front spherical surface Sn- 1 on the accuracy of focusing at the back spherical surface Sn. At present, many methods are used for the high-precision location on the outer surface S 1 [3–5] whereas the precise focusing on the lenses’ inner spherical surface Sn (n=2, 3, 4) is not achieved so far because of the effect of the refractive index nn, radius of curvature rn, figure error and so on. Therefore, based on the chromatography property and the property of an axial intensity curve that the absolute zero precisely corresponds to the focus of the objective in our differential confocal system (DCS) [6], a new annular laser differential confocal chromatography focusing technique (ADCFT) is proposed to achieve the precise focusing at the lenses’ inner-and-outer spherical surface and reduce the effect of spherical surface Sn’ figure error on the accuracy of focusing at the inner spherical surface, and thereby achieving the high-precision ray tracing measurement of lenses’ inner axial space.
2. ASRTM principle
2.1 Precise focusing at inner-and-outer spherical surface of the lenses
As shown in Fig. 2 , the zero On of ADCFT axial intensity response curve I(z) corresponds to the focus Fn of objective L1, two virtual pinholes (VPH) with the same offset M are used to receive the intensity signals I VPH1(0,u,+uM,ε) and I VPH2(0,u,-uM,ε) respectively, and the axial response curve I(0,u,uM,ε) is obtained through the differential subtraction of I VPH1(0,u,+uM,ε) and I VPH2(0,u,-uM,ε). And then, ASRTM uses the zero On of ADCFT axial intensity response curve I(z) at the different focusing plane of the objective L1 to precisely determine the spherical vertex position Pn of the test lenses and obtain the coordinate zn corresponding to the movement position of objective L1 where n=1, 2, 3, 4. Finally, ASRTM determines the precise vertex position Pn of spherical surface Sn by the ray tracing, and thereby achieving the precise focusing of the lenses’ inner-and-outer spherical surface.
VPH consists of an objective and a CCD, and achieves the intensity point detection in a confocal microscopy system by obtaining the total intensity within the designated areas near the energy centre of the spot.
When the convergence point of beam passing though objective L1 is moved near each spherical surface along the optical axis of the test lenses, the measurement beam is partly reflected back and then reflected by the polarized beam splitter (PBS) to the collecting lens L2 and beam splitter (BS), and the two measurement beam split by BS are received by VPHs.
The overlap area between the measurement spot and the test spherical surface is so small that the effect of the surface’s figure and curvature on the ADCFT intensity response is negligible. Then the signals obtained from detectors CCD1 and CCD2 are normalized as I VPH1 (0,u,+uM,ε) and I VPH2(0,u,-uM,ε), and the signal obtained through their differential subtraction is [6]
where ε is the normalized radius of the annular pupil, J 0 is a zero-order Bessel function, ρ is the radial normalized radius of a pupil, p 1(ρ,θ) is the pupil function of L1, p 2(ρ,θ) is the pupil function of L2, p C(ρ,θ) is the pupil function of LC, u is the axial normalized optical coordinate, and u=8πzsin2(α 0/2), v is the lateral normalized optical coordinate and v=(2πrsinα 0)/λ, z is the axial displacement of the objective, r is the radial coordinate of the objective and α 0 is the half-aperture angle.When lenses L1, L2 and LC have the same calibers, p C(ρ)=1, p 1(ρ)=1 and p 2(ρ)=1, I(0,u,uM,ε) obtained from Eq. (1) is:
As shown in Fig. 2, the zeroes of curves I(0,u,uM,ε) precisely correspond to the vertex positions P 1, P 2, P 3, and P 4 of lens surfaces, and the sensitivity S(0,0,uM,ε) at the zero can be obtained by differentiating Eq. (2) on u and is
The numerical analysis on Eq. (3) shows that the differential focusing curve has the best sensitivity Smax at zero when axial normalized offset uM satisfies:
The best sensitivity obtained from Eqs. (3) and (4) meets S max=−0.54×(1-ε 2), and the annular laser differential confocal focusing resolution σz satisfy
where δI(0,u,uM,ε) is the grey resolution of CCD in VPH, SNR is the signal noise ratio of VPH and SNR=1/δI(0,u,uM,ε).It can be seen from Eq. (5) that focusing resolution σz depends on half-aperture angle α 0 and normalized radius ε, and focusing resolution σz with different α 0 and ε is shown in Fig. 3 .
Half-aperture angle α 0 of objective L1 should be reduced to increase the ADCFT working distance while the normalized radius ε should be increased to reduce the aberration induced by the test lens surface.
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that ADCFT focusing resolution σz is better than 200 nm when α 0>0.114 rad and ε<0.8, which can meet the requirement of assembly for the high-precision lenses. Therefore, there should be ε<0.8 in ADCFT.
And furthermore, ADCFT can be combined with a phase pupil filter to shorten the focal-depth so as to further improve the axial sensitivity at the surface vertex [7,8].
2.2 Calculation of axial space
When the test lens L1 is moved along the optical axis shown in Fig. 2, ASRTM uses the absolute zero of ADCFT response curve to determine the overlapping position of pencil tip and the vertex Pn of the test lens spherical surface, and records the coordinate zn of L1 movement position corresponding to zero point On in turn.
As shown in Fig. 4 , supposing the lenses are spherical lens and the total surface number is n+1, the measurement ray has a deflection after passing through each spherical surface and the half-aperture angle θn changes due to the refractive index when the measurement beam with half-aperture angle θ 0 is converged on Sn +1 of the test lenses.
Where ρ pupil is the radius of objective L1 at the exit pupil, f 1 ' is the focal length of objective L1, rn is the radius of spherical surface Sn, nn is the refractive index between the spherical surfaces Sn and Sn +1, dn is the axial space between Sn and Sn +1, and in and in´ are the angles of the ray into and outof Sn.
According to the ray tracing formula [9], the variables of spherical surface Sn satisfy
where ln is the distance from the vertex of Sn to the point of intersection of the optical axis with the incidence light on Sn, ln´ is the distance from the vertex of Sn to the point of intersection of optical axis with the exit light from Sn, θn is the angle between incidence light on Sn and optical axis, and θn´ is the angle between the exit light from Sn and the optical axis.It is known from Fig. 4 that the relation between Sn -1 and Sn satisfies ln=ln-1´-dn-1 and θn=θn -1´. Recursive ray tracing expressions between Sn -1 and Sn obtained by Eq. (6) are
As shown in Fig. 4, when ASRTM pencil tip is coincident with the vertex of Sn +1, then
where θ 0 is the half-aperture angle of the measurement beam from L1. With Eq. (8) as the initial conditions, the axial space between Sn and Sn +1 obtained through Eq. (7) is dn=ln´.Therefore, each axial space of the test lenses dn is obtained through Eq. (7) when the parameters of each singlet r ={r 1,r 2,⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅,rn}, n={n 1,n 2,⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅,nn} and L1 position coordinates z={z 1, z 2,⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅, zn, zn +1 } are known. The ray tracing process can be expressed as a function T and dn=T(r, n, z, θ 0).
Function T only corresponds to the measurement result of a ray at half-aperture angle θ 0, and the axial space should be calculated by integrating on the measurement rays within the whole pupil plane. Assuming that the rays are uniformly distributed in the pupil plane, the axial space of lenses dn AXIAL satisfies
where the half-aperture angle of the measurement beam meets θ 0=arctan(ρ/f 1 ').3. Effect of annular pupil on ASRTM sensitivity
3.1 Reducing the wave aberration
ASRTM is simulated using Zemax. The laser wavelength is 632.8 nm and the test lenses consists of two lenses, where caliber D 1 of lens L 1 is 9.6 mm, f 1' is 35 mm, the radii of four test spherical surfaces consisting of two lenses are 195.421 mm, −140.234 mm, −140.234 mm and −400.731 mm in turn, the spaces between the surfaces of the two lenses are 12 mm, 0.323 mm and 10 mm in turn, and the refractive indices of the two lenses are 1.5143 and 1.6686.
When the annular pupil B is not used and the measurement beam is focused on the fourth surface of the test lenses, ASRTM wave aberration shown in Fig. 5(a) is PV=0.1243λ. And when the annular pupil B with ε=0.7 is used, ADCFT wave aberration shown in Fig. 5(b) is PV=0.0321λ which is about four times smaller than that of ASRTM. It is obvious that the annular illumination can improve the ASRTM measurement accuracy.
3.2 Effect of annular pupil on axial sensitivity
Simulations using Zemax indicate that the spherical aberration is the major aberration for ASRTM, and there are some other aberrations, e.g. astigmatism, coma and distortion, accompanying the misalignment of optical setup and the defects of the lens components in the measurement.
It can be seen from displacement theorem [9] that the primary spherical aberration A 040 ρ 4 and primary astigmatism A 022 ρ 2cos2 θ have effects on the axial position of diffraction focus, while primary coma A 031 ρ 3cosθ and primary distortion A 111 ρcosθ have no effect on the axial focusing. Here, only the A 040 ρ 4 and A 022 ρ 2cos2 θ obviously affecting the axial space measurement are considered.
3.2.1 Suppression on primary spherical aberration
The annular beam can reduce the ASRTM wave aberration and suppress the side lobe of axial intensity response curve whereas it reduces the ASRTM focusing sensitivity. The wave aberration of −2A 040 ρ 4 is introduced into the measurement system when only the primary spherical aberration of A 040 ρ 4 introduced by the test lenses is considered. And ASRTM intensity response curve obtained using Eq. (1) should satisfy
When the primary spherical aberration coefficient is A 040 =1.5λ, the axial intensity response curves with different ε are shown in Fig. 6 .
It can be seen from Fig. 6 that the side lobe of axial intensity curve is suppressed well as ε increases, whereas the sensitivity at the zero decreases excessively when ε>0.8.
3.2.2 Suppression on primary astigmatism
The wave aberration of −2A 022 ρ 2cos2 θ is introduced into the measurement system when only the primary astigmatism of A 022 ρ 2cos2 θ introduced by the test lenses is considered. And ASRTM intensity response curve obtained using Eq. (1) should satisfy
It is known through simulation using Zemax that the astigmatism coefficient A 022 usually is an order of magnitude smaller than spherical aberration coefficient in the aberrations produced by the deviation of light-path adjustment. Substituting A 022=0.2λ for Eq. (11), the axial intensity response curves with different ε are shown in Fig. 7 .
It can be seen from Fig. 7 that the sensitivity at the zero decreases whereas the zero position of differential confocal curves has no change as ε increases.
From Figs. 2, 6 and 7, the optimized ε≈0.7 is obtained under the consideration of focusing resolution σz, half-aperture angle α 0 of objective L1 and the primary spherical aberration and astigmatism.
4. Experiments
4.1 Experimental setup
The experimental setup shown in Fig. 8 is established based on Fig. 2 to verify the ASRTM validity.
Where the caliber of objective L1 is D=9.6 mm, the focal-length is f 1 '=35 mm, λ=632.8 nm, the normalized radius of the annular pupil is ε=0.71 and X80 interferometer is used for the axial displacement measurement of objective L1.
4.2 Thickness measurement of singlet
A plane-convex lens is used as the test lens, its refractive index is n 1=1.5143, the radius of its front surface is r 1=90.7908 mm, and its thickness is 4.0060 mm.
When objective L1 is moved along the optical axis, ADCFT obtains the response curves I 1(z) and I 2(z) near the front and back surfaces of the test lens and uses their zeroes O 1 and O 2 to precisely identify the positions of the surface vertex. The focusing curves are shown in Fig. 9 , where the axial coordinate of point O 1 is z 1=−0.0018 mm and the axial coordinate of point O 2 is z 2=2.6745 mm.
When 1000 rays uniformly distributed in the annular pupil plane are used for the ray tracing, the result calculated using Eq. (9) is d 1=4.0068 mm.
It is obvious that the thickness error obtained by ASRTM is δ =(4.0060-4.0068) mm= −0.0008 mm, i.e. it nearly coincides with the nominal thickness, and the relative error is |(4.0060-4.0068)|/4.0060×100%≈0.02%. And it is therefore that the Eq. (7) and Eq. (9) is right.
4.3 Axial space measurement of lenses
An air-spaced achromatic doublets is used as the test lens, the radii of its spherical surfaces are 195.426 mm, −140.270 mm, −140.258 mm and −400.906 mm in turn, its refractive indices are 1.5143 and 1.6686, and its inner space obtained indirectly by conventional contact measurement is S=0.323 mm in the assembly of lens.
When objective L1 is moved along the optical axis, ASRTM obtains the response curves I 1(z), I 2(z), I 3(z) and I 4(z) near the front and back surfaces of the test lenses and uses their zeroes O 1, O 2, O 3 and O 4 to precisely identify the vertex positions Pn of the four spherical surfaces.
The focusing curves are shown in Fig. 10 , where the axial coordinate of point O 1 is z 1=−0.1622 mm, the axial coordinate of point O 2 is z 2=7.8946 mm, the axial coordinate of point O 3 is z 3=8.2271 mm and the axial coordinate of point O 4 is z 4=14.5258 mm.
When 1000 rays uniformly distributed in the annular pupil plane are used for the ray tracing, the result calculated using Eq. (7) and Eq. (9) is d 1=11.9892 mm, d 2=0.3178 mm and d 3=9.9751 mm. The axial space d 2=0.3178 mm is close to S=0.323 mm, and the main reason is that the result S=0.323 mm itself has an extent error. Consequently, ASRTM is valid.
5. Conclusions
A new lenses inner axial space ray tracing measurement is proposed based on the geometrical theory of optical image, which uses the zero points of ADCFT axial intensity response curves to precisely identify the vertex positions of the test lenses surfaces, and then, calculates the axial space between the surfaces of lenses using the ray tracing. Preliminary experiments indicate that ASRTM has a relative error of less than 0.02%. ASRTM has some advantages as below.
- 1) The axial chromatography capability enables it to achieve the high-precision focusing at the vertex positions of the lenses inner-and-outer spherical surfaces.
- 2) Annular laser differential confocal intensity curve has a better linearity and the best sensitivity at the zero point, so it has high focusing accuracy at the vertex of the test lenses inner-and-outer spherical surface.
- 3) The annular pupil reduces the wave aberration of measurement system and suppresses the side lobe.
The ASRTM provides an effective approach for the high-precision measurement of the lenses axial space which has not been achieved so far.
Acknowledgment
Thanks to National Science Foundation of China (No.60708015, 60927012), Beijing Science Foundation of China (No.3082016), and Excellent Young Scholars Research Fund of Beijing Institute of Technology for the support.
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