Miniaturized 3-D surface profilometer using a fiber optic coupler

A 3-D surface profilometer is described which uses a simple fiber optic cou pler to form a Young's double pinhole interferometer. The Young's fringes a re projected onto a surface, captured by a camera and analyzed using the Fo urier transform method. The phase of the fringe pattern on the object is us ed to reconstruct the surface profile. System analysis, results from a simu lation, and preliminary experimental results are provided which indicate a system resolution on the order of a tenth of a millimeter. (C) 2001 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.