Matrix Projection Exposure Using an Analogue Liquid Crystal Display Panel in Place of a Reticle

The most serious problems for the matrix projection exposure using a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel in place of a reticle are largely solved by a new breakthrough method. LCD matrix exposure is effective for small volume productions of print circuits, screen masks, micromachine parts, and other items. Since no reticles are needed, all reticle costs are saved, and turnaround times required for changing the patterns are greatly shortened. However, in the conventional method, pattern widths and positions were strictly restricted depending on the geometric size and pitch of the liquid crystal cells. In this paper, a new concept appointing the cell brightness grades continuously using an analogue interface LCD panel is proposed. Calculating the image intensity distributions for various appointments of cell brightness balances to print same wide patterns, it is clarified that the pattern widths and positions are not much different if the pattern widths are wider than 2 cell pitches of the LCD panel. Maximum width and position variations are less than ± 10% even when the patterns are printed at arbitrary positions, of course including halfway ones. The calculated results are proved by experiments using an analogue LCD panel with a cell pitch of 15 μm. Though the cell size are 13 × 10 μm², and different in x and y directions, almost same wide line-and-space patterns are successfully printed at all positions by only one exposure. It is not necessary to shift the reticle for overlapping exposures to print smooth patterns. Oblique patterns and complicated Chinese character patterns are also printed at arbitrary positions. The new breakthrough technology will make the LCD matrix exposure promising for wide uses of printing various rough patterns easily at small costs.     

Diffraction Patterns of Static Particles on a 2-D Surface

The diffraction patterns of static particles deviate from those of dynamic particles of the same distribution characteristics. Use of diffraction solutions based on independent scattering to analyse such diffraction patterns leads to a narrower size distribution biased towards the smaller sizes. A 2-D coherent diffraction model using an inter-particle relation PDF function is developed. The model clearly demonstrates the terms due to the individual particle diffraction and the terms contributed by the inter-particle correlation, i.e. the coherent effects. The deviation of the static particle diffraction pattern from that of the dynamic particles can be well predicted. The results of this study provide a general solution for utilizing the forward diffraction technique in static particle measurement. One of the important applications of the new model is in the development of a diffraction reference reticle used for diffraction-based particle sizing instruments verification.     

Laser Diffraction Spectroscopy: Influence of Particle Shape and a Shape Adaptation Technique

The evaluation algorithm employed in laser diffraction spectroscopy is usually based on the Fraunhofer diffraction theory for spheres. As this evaluation theory is limited to spheres only, the measurement of irregularly shaped particles results in errors in the evaluated particle size distribution. To determine the influence of the particle shape, measurements of arbitrarily shaped particles were simulated, evaluated and compared with results for spherical particles of the same projected area. The detailed investigations showed that the particle's microstructure, i.e. its surface roughness, has almost no or only a negligible effect on the measurement result. In contrast to this advantageous outcome, the particle's microstructure, i.e. its axis ratio, affects the measurement result greatly and must be taken into account in the evaluation method. Based on these results, particles were considered to be ellipsoids with specific (but negligible) surface structures and a mathematical adaptation method was developed by extending the evaluation theory from spheres to randomly in space oriented ellipsoids. Simulations and experiments with reticles verified the need for this adaptation technique and its efficiency when applied.     

Characterization of Fibres and Fibre Collectives with Common Laser Diffractometers

The method described utilises the effect that in many commercially available laser diffractometers a laminary flow of the suspension medium in the measurement cell exists. However, data analysis carried out using commercially available laser diffractometers is normally based upon the assumption that there is a statistical orientation of the particles in the measurement volume. The resulting diffraction patterns are, therefore, assumed to be centrosymmetric and ring‐shaped. As a consequence, the detectors commonly used only record parts of the diffraction patterns. Based upon these assumptions, it is accepted that grain size analysis of fibrous particles gives an equivalent diameter between length and diameter. First experiments carried out using a Malvern Mastersizer X showed that fibres align in the flow direction. Analysis of the entire diffraction pattern should, therefore, provide information about the length and diameter of the fibres.     

Quality Assessment of Different PSA‐Instruments with Mixtures of Two Particle Size Distributions

In assessing the quality of two instruments for particle size analysis, a diffraction pattern analyser and an X‐ray sedimentation centrifuge have been used in multiple analysis of two size distributions of spherical and irregularly shaped particles. As expected the distributions differ due to shape influence caused by different particle characteristics and due to different evaluation algorithms in the case of spheres. The reproducibility of the diffraction data is approximately five to ten times higher than the corresponding centrifugal data. Different mixtures of the basic materials have been analysed and the size distributions thus obtained have been compared with the distributions calculated from the basic data. The experiments showed that the X‐ray centrifuge determines the size distributions, the size dependent mixing ratio and the overall mixing ratio with a comparatively small error. The measurement showed that the mass balances applied represent a sensitive test on instrument performance.     

Design and verification of diffractive optical elements for speckle generation of 3-D range sensors

The optical projection using speckles is one of the structured light methods that have been applied to three-dimensional (3-D) range sensors. This paper investigates the design and fabrication of diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for generating the light field with uniformly distributed speckles. Based on the principles of computer generated holograms, the iterative Fourier transform algorithm was adopted for the DOE design. It was used to calculate the phase map for diffracting the incident laser beam into a goal pattern with distributed speckles. Four patterns were designed in the study. Their phase maps were first examined by a spatial light modulator and then fabricated on glass substrates by microfabrication processes. Finally, the diffraction characteristics of the fabricated devices were verified. The experimental results show that the proposed methods are applicable to the DOE design of 3-D range sensors. Furthermore, any expected diffraction area and speckle density could be possibly achieved according to the relations presented in the paper.     

基于动态目标建模的粒子滤波视觉跟踪算法

提出一种根据场景变化动态建立目标模型的粒子滤波视觉跟踪算法.该方法首先选择简单且具有互补性的特征描述当前图像,并统一采用直方图法对这些特征进行建模;然后在粒子滤波框架下,根据巴塔恰里亚测度评价各个目标特征和背景特征之间的可区分程度,动态调整特征间的置信度;并对各个特征似然函数的噪音参量进行在线估计和更新,使其似然函数的度量标准达到统一.分析和实验表明,该算法性能优于仅仅采用多特征融合进行粒子滤波视觉跟踪的方法,对摄像机运动、混淆干扰、遮挡及目标外观大小的改变具有更强的鲁棒性.     

The study of fractal correlation method in the displacement measurement and its application

The classical digital speckle, or digital image, correlation method of deformation measurement is based on gray level correlation between unformed and deformed digital images. The pattern of artificial random speckles and the natural textures on some object's surfaces have fractal characteristics, and their fractal dimensions represent both gray and morph information. Furthermore, the fractal dimensions are stable feature parameters of the patterns. The digitized images of the patterns are confirmed to be also fractals. By this fact, a new method of displacement measurement is developed in the paper, based on the fractal dimensions correlation. The in-plane displacement fields of a body can be acquired. In order to verify the validity of the new method, an experiment has been designed and the results have been compared with those obtained from the classical digital image correlation method. The validity of the new method is not less than that of classical method. Further discussions about the traits and the developing vista of the method are given at the end.     

基于径向剪切干涉仪的三维位移测量技术

本文提出一种基于双圆光栅径向剪切干涉仪的三维位移测量方法,其测量原理是径向剪切干涉仪所形成的莫尔条纹不仅由二维平面内位移决定,轴向位移会在+1和–1级莫尔条纹之间产生一个特定的相移.首先,基于标量衍射理论对双圆光栅径向剪切干涉仪的+1和–1级莫尔条纹强度分布进行推导,建立了三维位移量与莫尔条纹强度分布的精确解析关系;其次,在频谱分析的基础上,利用半圆环滤波器进行空间滤波,实现+1和–1级莫尔条纹的同时成像;然后,提出了从莫尔条纹图中定量提取三维位移的算法,并通过数值模拟进行验证;最后,实验结果验证了该方法测量平面内位移的最大绝对误差为4.8×10^–3 mm,平均误差为2.0×10^–4 mm,轴向位移的最大绝对误差为0.25 mm,平均误差为8.6×10^–3 mm.该方法具有装置简单、测量精度高、非接触、瞬时测量等特点,可实现三维位移的同时测量.     

Quality assessment of speckle patterns for digital image correlation

Digital image correlation (DIC) is an optical–numerical full-field displacement measuring technique, which is nowadays widely used in the domain of experimental mechanics. The technique is based on a comparison between pictures taken during loading of an object. For an optimal use of the method, the object of interest has to be covered with painted speckles. In the present paper, a comparison is made between three different speckle patterns originated by the same reference speckle pattern. A method is presented for the determination of the speckle size distribution of the speckle patterns, using image morphology. The images of the speckle patterns are numerically deformed based on a finite element simulation. Subsequently, the displacements are measured with DIC-software and compared to the imposed ones. It is shown that the size of the speckles combined with the size of the used pixel subset clearly influences the accuracy of the measured displacements.     

Effects of red blood cell aggregates dissociation on the estimation of ultrasound speckle image velocimetry

Ultrasound speckle image of blood is mainly attributed by red blood cells (RBCs) which tend to form RBC aggregates. RBC aggregates are separated into individual cells when the shear force is over a certain value. The dissociation of RBC aggregates has an influence on the performance of ultrasound speckle image velocimetry (SIV) technique in which a cross-correlation algorithm is applied to the speckle images to get the velocity field information. The present study aims to investigate the effect of the dissociation of RBC aggregates on the estimation quality of SIV technique. Ultrasound B-mode images were captured from the porcine blood circulating in a mock-up flow loop with varying flow rate. To verify the measurement performance of SIV technique, the centerline velocity measured by the SIV technique was compared with that measured by Doppler spectrograms. The dissociation of RBC aggregates was estimated by using decorrelation of speckle patterns in which the subsequent window was shifted as much as the speckle displacement to compensate decorrelation caused by in-plane loss of speckle patterns. The decorrelation of speckles is considerably increased according to shear rate. Its variations are different along the radial direction. Because the dissociation of RBC aggregates changes ultrasound speckles, the estimation quality of SIV technique is significantly correlated with the decorrelation of speckles. This degradation of measurement quality may be improved by increasing the data acquisition rate. This study would be useful for simultaneous measurement of hemodynamic and hemorheological information of blood flows using only speckle images.     

Reconstructing spatial phase distributions and object images from speckle intensity patterns of the diffraction field

A method of reconstruction of the spatial phase distribution and the image of a scattering object from a recorded speckle pattern of the diffraction field has been developed and verified on test objects. The proposed method is based on an assumption that, for objects of a certain class, the phase difference between adjacent speckles in the far zone is equal to π. Digital records of Fourier speckle patterns and the corresponding digitally reconstructed images are presented.     

Speckle pattern quality assessment for digital image correlation

To perform digital image correlation (DIC), each image is divided into groups of pixels known as subsets or interrogation cells. Larger interrogation cells allow greater strain precision but reduce the spatial resolution of the data field. As such the spatial resolution and measurement precision of DIC are limited by the resolution of the image. In the paper the relationship between the size and density of speckles within a pattern is presented, identifying that the physical properties of a pattern have a large influence on the measurement precision which can be obtained. These physical properties are often overlooked by pattern assessment criteria which focus on the global image information content. To address this, a robust morphological methodology using edge detection is devised to evaluate the physical properties of different speckle patterns with image resolutions from 23 to 705 pixels/mm. Trends predicted from the pattern property analysis are assessed against simulated deformations identifying how small changes to the application method can result in large changes in measurement precision. An example of the methodology is included to demonstrate that the pattern properties derived from the analysis can be used to indicate pattern quality and hence minimise DIC measurement errors. Experiments are described that were conducted to validate the findings of morphological assessment and the error analysis.     

Computer-generated holograms for producing fractal speckles

When a diffuser is illuminated by the coherent light with a negative power-law distribution, fractal speckles are produced in the far-field diffraction region. Fractal speckles have extremely long spatial correlation functions of the intensity distributions in comparison with ordinary speckles, which implies that they may extend measurement ranges in various metrological applications based on the spatial correlation of speckles. To have fractal speckles with satisfactory statistical properties, it is required to produce a power-law illumination profile with high quality. In this paper, we report on the computer-generated holograms for producing power-law intensities on the basis of the method of stationary phase, with the error-reduction algorithm combined with to suppress strong ringing of the intensity.     

一种锗晶体光码盘的分划制作工艺研究

为了在锗晶体光坯上制作出满足要求的码盘图案,分别采用正性光刻胶和负性光刻胶,先镀膜后照相和先照相后镀膜的工艺路线进行工艺实验,并对实验结果进行分析,得出结论:用负性光刻胶按先照相后镀膜的工艺路线为锗晶体光码盘分划制作工艺的最佳方案。实验结果表明:加工出的图案明暗对比度大、边缘不均匀性小于0.008 mm,可实际应用于锗晶体上分划图案的制作。     

Rheed study of Pd particle growth on insulator substrates

Deposition of three dimensional particles on flat single crystalline surface results in appearance of transmission diffraction features. Analysis of diffraction patterns gives a possibility to characterize in situ the particle structure and orientation as well as to determine the variation of lattice parameter during particle growth. We have used the RHEED-system equipped with a data acquisition tool permitting both image processing and real time analysis. Different mode of epitaxy and lattice parameter variations were observed. The RHEED results were correlated with ex situ observations of particle size by means of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).     

Kinematic simulation of convergent beam low-energy electron diffraction patterns

Kinematic simulations are used to investigate the geometrical properties of convergent beam low-energy electron diffraction patterns from an Si(0 0 1) surface. Compression of a low-energy electron microscope immersion lens is included explicitly and the sensitivity of patterns to surface reconstruction and dimer buckling is investigated. Key pattern features and whole pattern symmetries are identified from the simulations and interpreted geometrically. Advantages over conventional low-energy electron diffraction techniques are identified.     

Digital Holography for Instantaneous Spray Diagnostics on a Plane

We present a measurement technique that is capable of simultaneously determining sizes and positions of multiple transparent droplets in a plane from scattered light features. The technique is largely independent of particle intensity and mutual obscuration. Reflected and refracted light from the droplets in a pulsed laser sheet is recorded holographically to yield the smallest possible probe volume and the largest possible number density. Larger droplets are best analyzed at the image plane; in this case, the droplets appear as two spots (glare points), whose separation is proportional to the droplet diameter. Smaller droplets are easier to analyze at an out‐of‐focus plane, where their images appear as fringe patterns whose spatial frequency is related to droplet size. Photographic techniques allow only one of these planes to be chosen and are therefore not suitable for multidisperse sprays. Optical holography allows to analyze arbitrary depths, but often suffers from low sensitivity and long analysis times. With digital holography, the spray images are captured digitally by a CCD camera and reconstructed numerically; as in optical holography, the particle reconstruction plane can be freely chosen a posteriori to optimize the measurement. We discuss the issues raised by the transition from holographic film to a CCD sensor as the recording medium, and demonstrate the capabilities of the digital technique.     

Self-coupled dual-mode ring resonator with turning transmission zeros in microwave bandpass filter for planar metamaterial: analysis and design

An H-shape dual-mode closed resonator with self-coupled segments is reported. The self-coupling between ring segments renders an equivalent mode perturbation effect as the normal ways of adding stub, cutting notch, or varying line impedance to the ring resonator. The mode perturbation and transmission-zero generation from the self-coupling effect and step-impedance were analyzed using the even–odd mode theory. By regulating the impedance ratio and coupling coefficients of self-coupled sections, the self-coupled ring resonator can produce either the capacitive or inductive perturbation. The input and output positions affect the number and locations of transmission zero. The positions of input and output ports are properly selected. In the capacitive perturbation case, when the two transmission zeros are located on both sides of the passband, and bring about a pseudo-elliptic bandpass response. The analysis of finding optimized taping positions of input and output ports is proposed. Comparing to the regular uniform ring resonator, the H-shaped self-coupled ring resonator has shorter ring length, is easily to be folded and does not destroy the dual-mode characteristics. The feature of compact size is favorable in the design of a bandpass filter. A 2.45-GHz bandpass filter based on the H-shaped self-coupled ring resonator was performed to verify the proposed theory. A schematic bandpass filter was implemented with a compact size which is only 20% of the conventional dual-mode bandpass filter.     

分划板失调时猫眼系统的反射特性

为降低光电装备猫眼效应,减小光学窗口被激光主动侦察系统探测到的概率,对分划板失调情况下猫眼系统的反射特性进行了研究。基于几何光学与2维平面波角谱衍射理论,推导并仿真了平面波通过分划板失调猫眼系统在出射面上的衍射光场分布特性,实验验证了猫眼目标的反射特性。研究结果表明:分划板失调会导致猫眼系统出射面的回波光斑发生椭圆形变,而斜入射探测激光会使这一现象更加明显。利用这一特性对猫眼系统进行改进,会大大增加激光主动侦察系统区分形变猫眼目标和漫反射背景干扰的难度。