A time-of-scan laser triangulation technique for distance measurements

This paper reports the development of an electro-optic device for relative distance measurement. The time-of-scan triangulation technique has been used as measurement principle and a rotating mirror employed as beam deflection system. A calibration technique is needed to calculate the geometrical parameters of the system. The device has an accuracy of 100 μm, a working distance of 20 cm and a range of 10 mm. The accuracy obtained depends on the instability of the rotation speed of the mechanical scanner that affects the measurement of the scanning time.     

Study on fast linear scanning for a new laser scanner

In the field of lidar system design, there is a need for laser scanners that offer fast linear scanning, are small size and have small a rotational inertia moment. Currently, laser scanners do not meet the above needs. A new laser scanner based on two amplified piezoelectric actuators is designed in this paper. The laser scanner has small size, high mechanical resonance frequencies and a small rotational inertia moment. The size of the mirror is 20 mm×15 mm. To achieve fast linear scanning performance, an open-loop controller is designed to compensate the hysteresis behavior and to restrain oscillations that are caused by the mechanical resonances of the scanner's mechanical structure. By comparing measured scanning waveforms, nonlinearities and scan line images between the uncontrolled and controlled scanner, it was found that the scanning linearity of linear scanning was improved The open-loop controlled laser scanner realizes linear scanning at 250 Hz with optical scan angle of ±12 mrad.     

Standard artifact for the geometric verification of terrestrial laser scanning systems

Terrestrial laser scanners are geodetic instruments with applications in areas such as architecture, civil engineering or environment. Although it is common to receive the technical specifications of the systems from their manufacturers, there are not any solutions for data verification in the market available for the users. This work proposes a standard artifact and a methodology to perform, in a simple way, the metrology verification of laser scanners.The artifact is manufactured using aluminium and delrin, materials that make the artifact robust and portable. The system consists of a set of five spheres situated at equal distances to one another, and a set of seven cubes of different sizes. A coordinate measuring machine with sub-millimetre precision is used for calibration purposes under controlled environmental conditions. After its calibration, the artifact can be used for the verification of metrology specifications given by manufacturers of laser scanners.The elements of the artifact are destinated to test different metrological characteristics, such as accuracy, precision and resolution. The distance between centres of the spheres is used to obtain the accuracy data, the standard deviation of the top face of the largest cube is used to establish the precision (repeatability) and the error in the measurement of the cubes provides the resolution value in axes X, Y and Z. Methodology for the evaluation is mainly supported by least squares fitting algorithms developed using Matlab programming.The artifact and methodology proposed were tested using a terrestrial laser scanner Riegl LMSZ-390i at three different ranges (10, 30 and 50 m) and four stepwidths (0.002°, 0.005°, 0.010° and 0.020°), both for horizontal and vertical displacements. Results obtained are in agreement with the accuracy and precision data given by the manufacturer, 6 and 4 mm, respectively. On the other hand, important influences between resolution and range and between resolution and stepwidth are observed. For example, the two smaller cubes cannot be well detected in any case and, as must be expected, the increase in range and stepwidth produces a decrease in the quality of the detection for the larger ones.     

Large field of view MEMS-based confocal laser scanning microscope for fluorescence imaging

Although confocal fluorescence microscopes are widely used in biology and have been proven to be promising diagnostic tools in dermatologic diagnostics, they are at present uncommon in medical practice. This is mainly due to high costs of acquisition and their large and complex outline. With the integration of a MEMS scanner we present a demonstration system of a confocal fluorescence laser scanning microscope which is affordable and portable. It has a field of view of 500 μm × 500 μm and is mainly composed of off-the-shelf components.     

共聚焦显微镜激光高速扫描控制系统设计及实现

 在传统光学扫描方法基础上,有效地将检流式与共振式光学扫描振镜结合起来,提出一种速度可达4 M/s采样率的高速激光扫描方法,并基于单片机系统设计搭建了系统控制硬件平台,编写了上位机端和下位机端应用软件。实验结果表明:该控制系统扫描速度快,性能稳定可靠,能够应用于共聚焦显微镜,实现实时扫描成像 。     

Systematic error correction of a 3D laser scanning measurement device

Non-contact measurement techniques using laser scanning have the advantage of fast acquiring large numbers of points. However, compared to their contact-based counterparts, these techniques are known to be less accurate. The work presented in this paper aims at improving the accuracy of these techniques through an error correction procedure based on an experimental process that concerns mechanical parts. The influence of the three parameters, defining the relative position and the orientation between the sensor and the surface, is studied. The process used to build an experimental global model of error is presented and applied to a typical part composed of planes or skewed surface. The systematic errors have been reduced by half in comparison to the reference values, while the random errors have slightly increased. This phenomenon is due to the fact that the errors correction model does not take into account the local response of the laser sensor. A second model, taking into account the local defect, has been developed. Its application to an example of inspection of a mechanical part shows an improvement of the results of the correction.     

Calibration procedure for 3D measurement systems using two cameras and a laser line

In order to ensure the precision of the measurement of complex 3D object surfaces using non-contact laser scanning systems, a novel stereo vision calibration procedure based on a laser line projection plane is presented. This calibration procedure can also be used in measurement systems based on a single camera and a laser line projection. This procedure, while using only laser-coplanar points, is oriented towards laser line detection and allows the matching of two images on the laser projection plane without the use of a rigid motion equation. These features make this procedure very precise, simple and, consequently, easier to implement.     

A DCN laser interferometer for electron density measurements of plasmas

The main characteristic of this interferometric system is such that the systems can be used for DCN laser (=195m, 190m) and also for HCN laser (=337m) by changing the work medium, regulating the temperature of tube wall and adjusting the optic path, without changing any optic element.     

Correction of the image distortion for laser galvanometric scanning system

Laser galvanometric scanning techniques are commonly used in various image display fields, such as medical imaging, laser display and material processing. The paper gives detail analyses of the image distortion involved in the galvanometric scanning. At the same time, the paper addresses the role of the correction algorithms of the image distortion. Experiment results based on SLS machine prove the efficiency of the correction algorithms.     

Theoretical analysis on the energy density of a laser field measured along an inertial world line of the space-time

Some mathematical relationships, in both the time and frequency domains, are presented in relation to the energy density and dipole-moment matrix element associated with a linearly polarized laser field evaluated on an inertial world line of the Minkowski space-time. As final result, we arrive at a formula for the minimum value of the time interval along which the field is evaluated.     

Frequency dependence of images in scanning laser source technique for a plate

Defect imaging using scanning laser source technique has been investigated for a plate with rounded defects and notch-type defects in our previous studies. This paper examines frequency dependence of the defect images with both calculations and experiments in order to acquire clearer images. Both calculation and experimental results for a straight notch revealed that clearer images of notch-type defects can be obtained in the range of low frequency-thickness product below about 200 kHz mm. Moreover, images of the defects of various shapes were obtained by synthesizing images from eight receiving transducers, and similarly to the case of the straight notches, they became more clearly in the low frequency range.     

激光扫描声学显微镜光学系统的设计

半导体激光器具有半导体和固体器件的许多优点：结构紧凑、效率高、价格便宜、长寿命，在许多方面优于气体激光器，因此在一些测量领域有较好的应用前景。本文基于棱镜对光的一维压缩及新型半导体激光器，对激光扫描声学显微镜的光学系统进行了新的设计，给出了相关数据及具体技术指标，实验证实其光学性能满足要求。整个光学系统具有结构紧凑、可靠性高、使用方便等特点，现已用于激光扫描声学显微镜定型设计。     

A laser system for high accuracy measurement of small apertures in mechanical parts

A simple, high accuracy small gap measurement system for rough industrial environments was designed and constructed. The system could detect apertures as small as 60 μm with less than 6 μm error in metallic parts with finite (cm range) depth. The principle is based in the transient analysis of transmitted laser intensity which is focused and swept along the region of the gap. The system is composed of a low power visible laser (semiconductor or He–Ne), focusing system, rotating mirror scanner, detection optics and amplifier, control unit for signal processing, speed control and data delivery to the process control unit.     

In-time motion adjustment in laser cladding manufacturing process for improving dimensional accuracy and surface finish of the formed part

This paper presents in-time motion adjustment in laser cladding manufacturing process as a means to improve dimensional accuracy and surface finish of the built part. Defects occurring during laser cladding degrade the part quality such as dimensional accuracy and surface finish. In this paper, in-time motion adjustment strategy was presented to remedy and eliminate defects occurring during laser cladding to improve the dimensional accuracy and surface finish. Based on the relationship between the motion of laser head relative to the growing part and other parameters in effects on clad profile, the laser traverse speed, stand-off distance and laser approach orientation to the existing clad layer were adjusted by instructions from a close-loop control system in real time to remedy and eliminate defects. The results of the experiments verified the effects of in-time motion adjustment on dimensional accuracy and surface finish.     

Finite element simulation of laser tube bending: Effect of scanning schemes on bending angle, distortions and stress distribution

Laser forming has received considerable attention in recent years. Within laser forming, tube bending is an important industrial activity, with applications in critical engineering systems like micro-machines, heat exchangers, hydraulic systems, boilers, etc. Laser tube bending utilizes the thermal stresses generated during laser scanning to achieve the desired bends. The parameters to control the process are usually laser power, beam diameter, scanning velocity and number of scans. Recently axial scanning has been used for tube bending instead of commonly used circumferential scans. However the comparison between the scanning schemes has involved dissimilar laser beam geometries with circular beam used for circumferential scanning and a rectangular beam for the axial scan. Thermal stresses generated during laser scanning are strongly dependent upon laser beam geometry and scanning direction and hence it is difficult to isolate the contribution made by these two variables. It has recently been established at the Corrosion and Protection Centre, University of Manchester, that corrosion properties of material during laser forming are affected by the number of laser passes. Depending on the material, the corrosion behaviour is either adversely or favourably affected by number of passes. Thus it is of great importance to know how different scanning schemes would affect laser tube bending. Moreover, any scanning scheme which results in greater bending angle would eliminate the need for higher number of passes, making the process faster. However, it is not only the bending angle which is critical, distortions in other planes are also extremely important. Depending on the use of the final product, unwanted distortions may be the final selection criteria. This paper investigates the effect of scanning direction on laser tube bending. Finite-element modelling has been used for the study of the process with some results also validated by experiments.     

激光扫描光纤尺寸在线检测系统研究

本文主要论述了激光扫描光纤尺寸在线检测系统的工作原理及总体结构设计，该系统具有检测速度快、精度高、非接触检测等特点，完全可适用于光纤尺寸的在线检测和控制     

Radius of curvature measurements for laser beams: A simple method

A simple method for measuring the radius of curvature of laser beams is introduced. It has been developed to estimate the astigmatic aberration of a diode laser. Compared with the interferometry, this method is convenient and straightforward.     

Analysis of the impact of laser line width over RIN, power penalty and bit rate including higher-order dispersion in WDM systems

This paper investigated the effect of laser line width over relative intensity noise (RIN), power penalty and bit rate at optical distances in the range of 100-10,000 km both analytically and graphically. It is also proposed and analyzed that by reducing the laser line width to the range of KHz, we can minimize the impact of RIN and power penalty under the individual and combined impact of higher-order dispersion parameters.     

Study of a line width estimation model for laser micro material processing using a photodiode

Estimation of the line width for a laser marking on the silicon wafer is very important to improve the productivity of the final product which use nonpackaged chip. Until now, only theoretical and numerical estimation models have been studied. However, it is not easy for these models to apply to real systems. In this study, a process monitoring system was used to develop an estimation model for the laser marking width. The plasma produced by interaction between the laser and the wafer was measured using an optical sensor. For each laser power setting, the correlation between the signal acquired from the optical sensor and the resulting line width was analyzed. Estimation models were developed for laser marking width through statistical regression analysis and an artificial neural network algorithm.     

A study of stitch line formation during high speed laser patterning of thin film indium tin oxide transparent electrodes

High speed laser patterning of indium tin oxide thin films on glass is part of the production method used to produce transparent conductive electrodes for plasma display panels. Such a design consists of rows of repeating electrode structures which cover the active area of the display. Whilst the patterning process for such electrode structures exceeds the industrial acceptance criteria there are certain features that are yet to be fully understood. The visible line that occurs in-between two adjacent laser processed areas, commonly known as a stitch line, is one such feature. Previously published research claimed that the stitch line was caused by incomplete removal of the thin film however experimental results presented within this paper demonstrate that this cannot be the case and show that the stitch line is formed by redeposition of the plume of ablated material within the area of overlap with the previous pulse, and that heating of the sample by the second pulse plays a key role in stitch line formation.