KR102022836B1 - Apparatus for measuring light, system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus, system and method for measuring light received from a specimen.
In a conventional hybrid system that measures the light emitted from a sample and obtains a corrected image such as tristimulus value, the optical sensitivity of the measuring instrument is reduced because of the use of optical splitting means such as a beam splitter. There is a problem. Accordingly, in order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a first measuring device and a second measuring device, which do not pass through light splitting means for splitting a plurality of light and directing them in different directions. Allow to enter For this purpose, the present invention extends from the first optical path section extending from a point in a common measurement area of the optical path of the first light to the first measuring device, and from the one point of the optical path of the second light to the second measuring device. The first and second measuring devices are disposed such that the second optical path sections do not overlap each other and form an angle within a range larger than 0 ° and smaller than 180 °.

Description

Optical measuring device, system and method {APPARATUS FOR MEASURING LIGHT, SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREOF}

The present invention relates to an apparatus, system and method for measuring light received from a specimen.

Various photometers and colorimeters exist for measuring the luminance or chromaticity of light emitted from a sample. In particular, there are photometers and colorimeters used to measure the brightness, chromaticity and other light emission characteristics of light emitted from flat panel display panels such as LCDs and PDPs to test the performance of panels of display devices.

For example, a spectral photometer or a spectral colorimeter is used as a device capable of measuring accurate luminance and chromaticity for high performance inspection. A spectral photometer / colorimeter can split the spectrum of light into a number of channels (e.g., 30 to 200 channels) having a predetermined band (e.g., 1 to 10 nm), and measure the energy in each band. In the spectral photometer / colorimeter, the energy of each band may be integrated using a predetermined color matching function to calculate luminance and / or chromaticity of a color space corresponding to the corresponding color matching function. For example, in order to perform a test based on a color sensed by a human in a test of a display device, a CIE tristimulus (XYZ) representing this can be accurately obtained with a spectral photometer / colorimeter. Such spectral photometers / colorimeters have the advantage of being able to obtain accurate luminance and / or chromaticity in the manner described above, but have the disadvantages that the measurement takes a long time, the complexity of the apparatus is high and expensive. There is also a limit to the fact that measurements usually do not have or have small spatial resolution.

In order to solve the above problems, a hybrid system of a spectral photometer / colorimeter and an image camera has been devised. For example, there is a colorimeter system such as Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2016-0098083. In the conventional measuring system as shown in FIG. 1, the coaxial light emitted from the sample is branched to the beam splitter 30 to direct each branched light to the RGB camera 20 and the spectral colorimeter 10, and then the spectral colorimeter 10. The tristimulus values measured at are converted into and corrected by the RGB image acquired by the RGB camera 20 to generate an image of the tristimulus values. Such conventional techniques include an RGB camera 20 capable of acquiring an RGB image of a sample at a higher speed in a wider area, and a spectral colorimeter capable of acquiring a tristimulus value of the sample more accurately without spatial resolution in a narrower area. By integrating (10), there is an advantage that map information of the tristimulus value with improved accuracy can be obtained.

However, since such conventional metering systems use optical splitting means such as beam splitters to measure coaxial light at different meters, the amount of light at least is reduced to 1/2 or less in the course of splitting coaxial light. As a result, at least one of the two meters has a problem that the light sensitivity is reduced to 1/2 or less. When the light sensitivity is lowered as described above, since the time to collect the light for measurement is increased, the measurement time for the sample is increased, and as a result, there is a problem that productivity is reduced in the sample inspection process. In addition, since the light dividing means must be provided in the optical measuring device, there is a problem that the freedom of arrangement of the measuring device is limited because the volume of the device is increased and the position of the measuring device is determined according to the arrangement of the optical dividing means. In addition, when the aperture mirror is used as the light dividing means, an image of a portion corresponding to the hole of the mirror cannot be obtained, and when the hole is small, there is a problem in that the amount of light reaching the measuring device through the hole is reduced.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems of the prior art.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a first measuring device and a second measuring device without the light splitting means for splitting a plurality of light incident from the sample into the optical measuring device and directing them in different directions. Allow them to enter. For this purpose, the present invention extends from the first optical path section extending from a point in a common measurement area of the optical path of the first light to the first measuring device, and from the one point of the optical path of the second light to the second measuring device. The first and second measuring devices are disposed such that the second optical path sections do not overlap each other and form an angle within a range larger than 0 ° and smaller than 180 °.

An optical measuring device according to the present invention comprises first measuring means for receiving a first light from a first measurement region of a specimen and generating at least one first measurement value from the received first light, the second measurement of the specimen Second measuring means for receiving a second light from an area and generating a second set of measured values having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light, and based on the first measured value, the second measurement Correction means for performing at least one of the conversion and correction for the value. And wherein the first measuring means and the second measuring means have a common measuring region in which the first measuring region and the second measuring region are at least partially overlapping each other, and among the optical paths of the first light to the first measuring means. The first optical path section extending from one point in the common measurement area and the second optical path section extending from the one point of the optical paths of the second light leading to the second measuring means are larger than 0 ° without overlapping each other. It may be arranged such that it forms an angle within a range smaller than 180 °.

In one embodiment, the second measuring means may generate the second measured value for every area in the second measuring area.

In one embodiment, the optical measuring device is connected to the first measuring means and the second measuring means, the position of the first measuring means to change the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section. And control means for changing at least one of an optical axis and an optical system setting and a position of the second measuring means, an optical axis and an optical system setting.

In one embodiment, the correction means may also perform at least one of conversion and correction on the second measured value based on an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section. .

In one embodiment, the light incident on the optical measuring device is incident on the first measuring means and the second measuring means without passing through a plurality of light splitting means for dividing the light into a plurality of directions to direct in different directions. can do.

In one embodiment, the optical measuring device includes a plurality of the second measuring means, and the second measuring area of the plurality of the second measuring means has an area at least partially overlapping, and the common measuring area is It may be located in the overlapping area.

In one embodiment, the optical measuring device includes a plurality of first measuring means, and wherein the first measuring area of the plurality of first measuring means has at least two or more of the common measuring area in the overlapping area. It can be characterized.

In one embodiment, the first measuring means may be any one of a spectral photometer, a spectral colorimeter, a spectral radiometer, a photophotometer, a photochromic meter, and a photoelectric radiation meter. In addition, the second measuring means may be any one of a camera having a spatial resolution, an image photometer, and an image colorimeter.

In the optical measuring device according to the present invention, a method for measuring light received from a sample includes receiving a first light from a first measuring area of the sample with a first measuring device, and receiving at least one first from the received first light. Generating a measurement value, receiving a second light from a second measurement area of the sample with a second meter, and generating a second set of measurement values having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light, And a correction step of performing at least one of conversion and correction on the second measurement value based on the first measurement value. Here, the first measuring unit and the second measuring unit have a common measuring region in which the first measuring region and the second measuring region are at least partially overlapped, and the common measuring region of the optical path of the first light to the first measuring unit. A first optical path section extending from a point within the second optical path section extending from the one point of the optical path of the second light to the second measuring device does not overlap each other and is greater than 0 ° and less than 180 ° It may be characterized in that it is arranged to form an angle within.

An optical measuring system according to the present invention includes a first measuring device for receiving a first light from a first measuring region of a sample and generating at least one first measuring value from the received first light, the second measuring of the sample A second meter for receiving a second light from an area and generating a second set of measured values having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light, and based on the first measured value, the second measured value It may include a correction circuit for performing at least one of the conversion and correction for.

An optical measuring system according to the present invention includes a first measuring device for receiving a first light from a first measuring region of a sample and generating at least one first measuring value from the received first light, the second measuring of the sample A second meter receiving a second light from an area, and generating a second set of measurements having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light, and at least one processor, the processor comprising the first light; Based on the measurement, it may be configured to perform at least one of the conversion and the correction for the second measurement.

Here, the first measuring unit and the second measuring unit have a common measuring region in which the first measuring region and the second measuring region are at least partially overlapped, and the common measuring region of the optical path of the first light to the first measuring unit. A first optical path section extending from a point within the second optical path section extending from the one point of the optical path of the second light to the second measuring device does not overlap each other and is greater than 0 ° and less than 180 ° It can be arranged to be angled within.

According to the optical measuring device, system, and method according to the present invention, since no optical splitting means such as a beam splitter is used, the corrected map data of measured values defined in a predetermined color space, such as tristimulus values, can be obtained more quickly with respect to the specimen. This can have an advantageous effect of improving the productivity of the specimen inspection process. In addition, the design of the light measuring device can be simplified and the device can be miniaturized. Further, in the present invention, since the difference in the characteristics of light due to the difference in the viewing angle is corrected, it is possible to accurately correct the coaxial light without measuring the optical splitting means. In addition, according to the present invention, by using a plurality of cameras, it is possible to measure a larger area of the sample, or to measure at a larger resolution, which has the advantageous effect of improving the measurement spatial resolution. In addition, there is an advantageous effect that the correction value can be corrected / converted on a uniform basis throughout the sample. In addition, according to the present invention, since the measurement value having the spatial resolution to be corrected is corrected / converted by using the reference measurement value of each region measured by setting the measurement area locally, it is advantageous to further improve the correction / conversion accuracy. It works. Furthermore, according to the present invention, there is an advantageous effect of simultaneously correcting and / or converting the measured values of various viewing angles.

1 is a view showing a conventional optical measurement system.
2 is a block diagram of a first meter and a second meter according to the present invention.
3 is a diagram showing a first measurement region, a second measurement region, and a common measurement region for a specimen.
4 is a view showing an optical measuring device and system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a reference diagram for explaining a correction according to the present invention.
6 and 7 are diagrams illustrating setting of a first measurement region, a second measurement region, and a common measurement region for a sample according to an embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a view showing an optical measuring device, system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
9 is a block diagram of an optical measuring device and system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
10 is a flowchart of a light measuring method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The optical measuring device of the present invention includes a first measuring means, a second measuring means and a correction means, the correction means being based on the first measured value of the first measuring means for the specimen and the second measured value of the second measuring means. Perform at least one of conversion and correction for. Herein, the sample refers to an object to measure light received therefrom, and the sample may be an object that actively emits light or an object that reflects incident light. For example, the sample may be, but is not limited to, a display (for example, OLED, LCD, PDP, etc.) or various light sources (for example, LED, etc.) or illumination provided in a device providing a display to a user. have.

The first measuring means of the present invention may be a first measuring device that receives the first light from the first measuring region of the specimen and generates at least one first measured value from the received first light. In the present invention, the first meter is characterized in that it produces a measurement value having a relatively higher accuracy than the second meter described later. For example, the first meter can be any of known spectral photometers or radiometers, spectral colorimeters, or can be any of photoelectric photometers or photochromic colorimeters.

A spectral photometer or spectral colorimeter is a device that analyzes the spectrum of light to measure more precise brightness and chromaticity of light. When the first measuring means becomes a measuring instrument based on such spectral analysis, the measuring instrument includes a spectrometer 101a for generating a spectrum of incident light as shown in FIG. 2A, a detector 102a such as an optical sensor for detecting the spectrum, and It may include a circuit or processor 103a for processing band-specific energy of light detected at the detector. In a spectral photometer or colorimeter, the spectrum of light is divided into a number of channels (e.g., 30 to 200 channels) having a predetermined band (e.g., 1 to 10 nm), the energy in each band is measured, and the energy of each band. By integrating with a predetermined color matching function, the luminance and / or chromaticity of the color space corresponding to the corresponding color matching function can be obtained. For example, by integrating the energy of the spectrum using a CIE XYZ color matching function designed to model the color perceived by the human eye, the CIE tristimulus value XYZ can be obtained. For example, the CIE tristimulus value XYZ can be obtained using Equation 1 below.

Where X, Y and Z are CIE tristimulus values, λ is wavelength, L is spectral radiation amount, and x, y and z are color matching functions in the CIE XYZ color space.

Alternatively, the spectral photometer / colorimeter may acquire values of the normalized CIE xyY color space as needed, and may also obtain luminance and / or chromaticity of the corresponding color space using color matching functions defined in other color spaces. have. As described above, a device for measuring light by analyzing a spectrum reflects an energy value for each band to a color matching function to calculate luminance and / or chromaticity defined by the corresponding color matching function, thereby obtaining accurate luminance and / or chromaticity. The advantage is that you can. However, this method of analyzing the spectrum takes a long time to acquire the brightness and / or chromaticity, the complexity of the device is high and expensive disadvantages. There is also a limit to the fact that measurements usually do not have or have small spatial resolution.

On the other hand, photoelectric photometers (photoelectric photometer) or photoelectric colorimeter (photoelectric colorimeter) is a device for measuring the brightness and / or chromaticity using an optical filter and light sensor instead of analyzing the spectrum directly. Such a photometer may include an optical filter 101b, a detector 102b such as an optical sensor, and a circuit or processor 103b for processing an output value of the detector as shown in FIG. 2B. The photoelectric photometer / colorimeter measures the brightness and / or chromaticity of the color space by measuring the energy of light passing through the optical filter with an optical sensor using an optical filter corresponding to the color matching function of the color space to be measured. . Such photophotometers / colorimeters have the advantage of being able to acquire luminance and / or chromaticity more quickly, but are relatively accurate because they use optical filters that model color matching functions rather than directly analyzing the energy of the spectrum of light. Has a lower limit.

The first measuring device of the present invention may be any of the above-described spectral photometers, radiometers, spectral colorimeters, photophotometers, photoelectric colorimeters, and photometers / radiometers based on spectral analysis or photoelectric phenomena that operate in a manner other than those described above. / Colorimeter, etc. Here, preferably, the first measuring device may be a spectral photometer or a colorimeter in order to obtain a more accurate first measuring value. However, the first measuring device is not limited thereto, and the first measuring device may be an optical measuring device that measures luminance, chromaticity, or other light characteristics with a relatively higher accuracy than the second measuring device described below. Thus, the first measuring device may be a photometer, colorimeter or other optical measuring device based on other methods besides the above-described method. The first measurement value generated by the first measuring device may be a luminance and / or characteristic value of chromaticity or other light defined in an arbitrary color space, and preferably, at least one of a tristimulus value and a CIE tristimulus value (XYZ). Can be a value. However, the first measurement value is not limited thereto, and may be a luminance and / or chromaticity value defined in another color space, or a characteristic value of other light, if necessary.

The second measuring means of the present invention may be a second measuring device for receiving a second light from the second measuring region of the specimen and generating a second set of measurement values having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light. have. Here, the second set of measurement values may have a form such as an image, a two-dimensional array, or a map having a predetermined spatial resolution (for example, 640 x 480, 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024, etc.), It may have a data structure that is at least three-dimensional depending on the number of channels. The second meter of the present invention produces a measurement with a relatively lower accuracy than the first meter described above, but is characterized by having a higher spatial resolution. Here, having a relatively low accuracy may mean that the second measurement value or the converted value of the second measurement value of the second measuring device has a larger measurement error and lower accuracy than the first measuring value of the first measuring device. For example, the second measuring device may be any one of a camera, an image photometer, and an image colorimeter having a predetermined spatial resolution.

Here, the second measuring device may be a camera, a photometer, a colorimeter, or the like, which includes an optical filter and an optical sensor having a spatial resolution. Here, as the optical filter, a known optical filter corresponding to the color space to be measured by the second measuring instrument may be used, and as the optical sensor, known sensors capable of acquiring an image such as a CCD and a CMOS may be used. For example, the second meter can be an RGB camera or a rotary filter camera, and can generate CIE tristimulus values (XYZ) images using optical filters defined in the CIE XYZ color space as well as the RGB color space, as needed. It may also be an image photometer / chromometer that produces a measurement in the color space.

The second measuring device may be a measuring device that generates an image of the same color space as an image of a specific color space to be acquired by the optical measuring device of the present invention, or may be a measuring device which generates images of a different color space. If the second measuring device generates a second measured value of a color space different from the color space of data to be acquired by the optical measuring device of the present invention, it is necessary to convert the color space of the second measured value. Such conversion of the color space may be performed by the second measuring means, or may be performed by the correction means described below. Further, the color space conversion in the correction means described below may be performed in the second measuring means, and the correction means may be integrated with the second measuring means as necessary. For example, when the optical measuring device of the present invention generates an image of a tristimulus value of a sample, the second measuring instrument may be a photometer or a colorimeter which generates an image of the tristimulus value, or may be a camera generating an RGB image. . If the second measuring device is an RGB camera, the RGB measuring value generated by the second measuring device may be converted into a tristimulus value, and the conversion may be performed in a correction process as necessary.

The second measuring device of the present invention may be any one of the above-described camera, image photometer, and image colorimeter, and may also be another optical measuring device having a predetermined spatial resolution. The second measuring device of the present invention is not limited to the above-described example, and may be an optical measuring device having a predetermined spatial resolution while measuring characteristics of luminance and / or chromaticity and other light with a relatively lower accuracy than the first measuring device. The second measurement value generated by the second meter may be a luminance and / or characteristic value of chromaticity or other light defined in an arbitrary color space, and preferably at least of RGB data, tristimulus values, and CIE tristimulus values (XYZ). It can be one value.

In one embodiment, in the optical measuring device of the present invention, the first measuring device may be a spectral colorimeter, and the second measuring device may be an image colorimeter or an RGB camera. However, the combination of the first meter and the second meter is not limited to the above example, and may be selected as a combination that satisfies the conditions of measurement accuracy and spatial resolution of the first and second meters. In addition, the first and second measuring devices of the present invention are not limited to separate devices or objects that are physically separated, and as described above, the characteristics of luminance and / or chromaticity or other light defined in a predetermined color space are measured. Combinations of hardware and / or software that perform functions may be present in the form of being integrated into at least one or more devices or systems.

In the present invention, the first measurement region for the sample of the first meter and the second measurement region for the sample of the second meter have at least partially overlapping common measurement regions. For example, referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the first measurement area 1 for the sample 3 of the first measuring device 100 and the second for the sample 3 of the second measuring device 200 are described. The measurement area 2 has overlapping common measurement areas, and in the examples of FIGS. 3 and 4, the entire first measurement area 1 becomes the common measurement area 1.

In the optical measuring device of the present invention, a first optical path section extending from a point in a common measurement area of the optical path of the first light to the first measuring device, and from the one point of the optical path of the second light to the second measuring device. The first meter and the second meter are arranged such that the extending second optical path sections do not overlap each other and are angled within a range greater than 0 ° and less than 180 °. Here, the overlapping optical path sections does not mean that optical paths of light traveling in different directions cross each other at only one intersection point, but the optical paths overlap each other in at least some sections. It means. For example, in the conventional measuring system as shown in FIG. 1, the optical paths of the light reaching the measuring instruments 10 and 20 overlap each other in a section extending from the common measuring region of the sample to the beam splitter. On the other hand, in the present invention, such overlap of optical paths does not occur. In the present invention, the first optical path section may be a straight section extending from any one point in the common measurement region of the optical path of the first light, and the second optical path section is from the same one point of the optical path of the second light. The first optical path section and the second optical path section may be angled without overlapping each other. Therefore, the first light path and the second light path sections extending from all points in the common measurement area may not overlap each other.

As described above, the optical measuring device of the present invention forms an angle without overlapping the first optical path section and the second optical path section, so that the first optical path having a different optical path from the start from the common measurement region as shown in FIG. The second light reaches the first meter 100 and the second meter 200, respectively. That is, in the conventional optical measuring device as shown in FIG. 1, the light travels in the same optical path and is branched by the light splitting means 30 such as the beam splitter, and is incident on each RGB camera 20 and the spectral colorimeter 10. On the other hand, in the present invention, the light reaching the first measuring instrument and the second measuring instrument is light having different light paths from each other since starting from the common measuring region 1.

Conventional optical measuring devices, such as FIG. 1, use optical splitting means such as beam splitters or aperture mirrors to measure coaxial light at different meters. That is, the light traveling along the same optical path is diverted to a beam splitter or the like and directed in different directions, so that each measuring device receives the divided light. However, in such a conventional optical measuring device, the amount of split light in the process of splitting light is reduced to 1/2 or less than the light before splitting, so that at least one of the two measuring devices There is a problem that the light sensitivity is reduced to 1/2 or less. In addition, when the light sensitivity decreases as described above, since the time to collect the light for measurement increases, the measurement time for the sample increases, and as a result, there is a problem in that the productivity decreases in the sample inspection process. In addition, since the light dividing means must be provided in the optical measuring device, there is a problem that the freedom of arrangement of the measuring device is limited because the volume of the device is increased and the position of the measuring device is determined according to the arrangement of the optical dividing means. In addition, when the aperture mirror is used as the light dividing means, an image of a portion corresponding to the hole of the mirror cannot be obtained, and when the hole is small, there is a problem in that the amount of light reaching the measuring device through the hole is reduced.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the optical measuring device of the present invention does not pass through the light dividing means that the light incident from the sample and incident on the optical measuring device splits the light into a plurality of pieces and directs them in different directions, Allow incident to the first meter and the second meter. To this end, the optical measuring device of the present invention, as described above, of the first optical path section extending from a point in the common measurement area of the optical path of the first light to the first measuring device and the second light to the second measuring device The first meter and the second meter are arranged such that the second optical path sections extending from the one point of the optical path do not overlap with each other and form an angle within a range greater than 0 ° and less than 180 °.

In one embodiment, as shown in the example of FIG. 4, the first and second measuring instruments are disposed such that the optical axis of the first measuring instrument and the optical axis of the second measuring instrument have a predetermined angle, and thus, the first optical path section and the second optical path section. The angle of the liver can be made larger than 0 °. Here, the first measuring unit and the second measuring unit receive light directly from the sample without passing through the light splitting means, and because they are spaced apart from each other at the predetermined angle as described above, each of the light having different light paths is received.

In the present invention, the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section may be determined based on the distance between the sample of the first and second meter and the distance between the first and second meter. Here, the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section is set to a predetermined angle or more such that the first light from the first measuring region and the second light from the second measuring region are not the same or overlapping light with each other. Can be. The angle may be set to a small angle such as 0.001 ° or 0.01 ° in an ideal case, but may be realized in the optical measuring device in consideration of the physical size of the first and second measuring devices or the mutual separation distance and the distance to the sample. Can be set to an angle. For example, it may be set at an angle of 0.5 ° or more, 1 ° or more or 1.5 ° or more in view of the above constraints.

As described above, the first measuring means and the second measuring means are arranged such that an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section is greater than 0 °, so that an optical splitter such as a beam splitter is used in the present invention. Without doing so, the second measuring means can generate the second measured value without missing areas for all areas in the second measuring area. In addition, the first measuring means can also generate the first measured value without an area missing in the first measuring area.

On the other hand, a light path changing means such as a mirror, etc. may be additionally provided in the optical measuring device of the present invention to adjust the arrangement of the first measuring device or the second measuring device as necessary, not to branch light to be incident on the measuring device. It may be. In this case, the arrangement of the first measuring instrument and the second measuring instrument may be determined by further considering the arrangement of the optical path changing means. Therefore, in the present invention, the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section may not necessarily coincide with the angle between the optical axis of the first measuring instrument and the optical axis of the second measuring instrument. It may also depend on the arrangement of the means. Therefore, the optical measuring device of the present invention is characterized by satisfying the condition that the first optical path section and the second optical path section form an angle within a range larger than 0 ° and smaller than 180 ° without overlapping each other. The position of the first measuring instrument and the second measuring instrument, the optical axis direction, the setting of the optical system, etc. may be changed as necessary within a range satisfying the condition. In addition, the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section may be fixed or may be changed as necessary by the control means described later.

Here, as the angle between the first light path section and the second light path section increases, the possibility that the characteristics of the first light and the second light differ from each other may increase. Therefore, the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section may preferably be set within 90 °, or 60 ° or 45 ° or 30 °. In particular, the inventors of the present invention provide a method for optical measurement such as tristimulus value when the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section is within 15 °, preferably within 10 °, more preferably within 5 °. It was found that significant errors hardly occur as the optical paths of the first light and the second light are different. That is, the inventors of the present invention, even if the first measuring instrument and the second measuring instrument do not use the light having the same optical path from the sample, when the first optical path section and the second optical path section are within a predetermined angle, the final corrected It was found that no significant difference occurred in the accuracy of the sample's tristimulus values. This may be because the difference between the three stimulus values measured when the difference between the two optical paths emitted from the sample is within a predetermined angle is negligible. Therefore, in the present invention, the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section is within 15 °, preferably within 10 °, more preferably within 5 °, thereby correcting the correction accuracy of the second measured value as in the prior art. While maintaining the level, it is possible to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art to speed up the measurement, thereby achieving the advantageous effect of improving the productivity of the specimen inspection process. In addition, since the optical splitting means such as a beam splitter is not used, complicated optical design is unnecessary, and the design of the optical measuring device is simplified and the device can be miniaturized. In addition, in the present invention, the difference in the characteristics of light due to the difference in viewing angles described above may be further corrected according to the method described below. It can be further improved.

The optical measuring device of the present invention may further include a control means. The control means may change at least one of the position of the first measuring device, the optical axis and the optical system setting, and the position of the second measuring device, the optical axis and the optical system so as to change the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section. In an embodiment, the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section may be changed by changing the arrangement of the optical path changing means such as a mirror together with the above-described modification of the first and second measuring instruments. The control means for the above-described change may include well-known physical mechanisms for fixing, moving, and adjusting postures for changing the position or direction of the measuring instrument or mirror, and a driving mechanism such as a motor for physically controlling them. . For example, a known fixing mechanism such as a screw for fixing a measuring instrument or a mirror, an adhesive means, a known moving mechanism such as a belt that is adjusted to physically change the position or direction of the fixing mechanism, or a known rotating mechanism such as a rotating shaft. It may include, and may also include a known drive mechanism such as a motor that can control the movement or rotation mechanism. It may also include a control circuit or processor and a combination of hardware and / or software that functions to control the instruments. It may also include a circuit or processor and a combination of hardware and / or software that functions to control optical system settings, such as focusing or light exposure settings of the meter.

The correction means of the present invention corrects and / or converts the second measured value of the second meter based on the first measured value of the first meter. In the present invention, the correction means may be a correction circuit composed of hardware and / or software for performing the conversion and / or correction functions described below. For example, a correction circuit can be an electrical or electronic circuit in which certain elements designed to perform such a function are combined. The correction means may also be at least one processor or a combination of hardware and / or software for performing such functions.

In the present invention, when the first measured value and the second measured value are measured values defined in the same color space, the second measured value may be corrected based on the first measured value. In addition, when the first measured value and the second measured value are measured values defined in different color spaces, the second measured value is converted into the color space of the first measured value, and then, based on the first measured value, You can also correct the conversion value. Alternatively, depending on the setting of the conversion and / or correction function, even if the first measurement value and the second measurement value are defined in different color spaces, the color space of the second measurement value is converted and corrected based on the first measurement value. The processing to perform may be performed as an integrated transformation.

In the present invention, the first measuring unit and the second measuring unit do not receive the coaxial light, and as described above, the first light path and the second light path section receive the first light and the second light so that they do not overlap each other. Since the first measured value and the second measured value are generated, in correcting the second measured value based on the first measured value, it is preferable to correct such a difference in the optical path. Therefore, in the present invention, the second measured value may be corrected and / or converted by further considering an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section. To this end, the first measured value may be corrected based on an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section, and the second measured value may be corrected and / or converted based on the corrected first measured value. According to the above-described angle correction may be integrated into the correction and / or conversion process of the second measurement.

The light received from the meter starting from the sample varies in intensity depending on the viewing angle of the light in the real sample, that is, the angle at which the meter views the sample. Here, when the light distribution information of the sample is information representing a characteristic in which the luminance and / or chromaticity are measured differently according to the viewing angle at which the meter views the sample, the light distribution information on the intensity of light for each viewing angle of the sample may be collected through pre-measurement. have. Alternatively, when the light distribution information of the sample is not collected in advance, the light distribution information may be mathematically modeled according to Lambert cosine law. That is, when the intensity of light in the normal direction of the specimen is defined as I ₀ , the intensity I of the light at the angle θ may be defined as in Equation 2 according to the angle θ formed with the normal line.

Therefore, using the light distribution information as described above, in the present invention, the first measured value can be corrected based on the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section. For example, if the second measuring device is disposed in the normal direction of the sample, and the first measuring device forms an angle θ with the normal direction, if there is light distribution information for each viewing angle of the sample collected in advance, the viewing angle may be used. The magnitude of the first measured value may be corrected by reflecting the difference in light intensity according to the difference. For example, in the above example, if light distribution information has been collected and stored in advance that light having an angle θ of 10 ° with a normal has 90% less light intensity than light in a normal direction, the size of the first measured value is determined in the normal direction. The corrected first measurement can be generated by multiplying the first measurement by 10/9 to meet the criteria of the second meter of. As such, the correction means may store the light distribution information collected in advance in the sample in a storage device such as a memory. Alternatively, if there is no light distribution information collected in advance, the size of the first measured value may be corrected based on the Lambert cosine law described above, and the light distribution information based on the Lambert cosine law may also be stored in the correction means. The above-described correction of the first measured value size may be performed integrally with the correction and / or conversion process of the second measured value.

The above-described correction will be described again with reference to FIG. 5, unlike the light distribution characteristic (4) of the ideal specimen which is not affected by the viewing angle, or the light distribution characteristic (6) of the specimen based on Lambert cosine law. May have a distribution such as (5). In the present invention, in order to correct the first measured value incident on the first measuring device along the first optical path section 8 as the light traveling along the second optical path section 9, the actual light distribution characteristics of the specimen. (5) can be collected in advance and stored as light distribution information, and the size of the first measured value can be corrected using this.

In the present invention, the second measured value can be corrected and / or converted based on the corrected first measured value. However, when the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section is small, the difference in the intensity of the light due to the angle difference may not be large. Therefore, if necessary, correction of the first measured value using the light distribution information described above is omitted. The second measurement may be corrected and / or converted directly based on the first measurement generated by the first measuring device.

Hereinafter, the conversion and / or correction of the second measured value based on the corrected or uncorrected first measured value will be described in more detail. In addition, for convenience of description, the first measurement value corrected using the above-described light distribution information will also be briefly referred to as the first measurement value.

The correction means of the present invention may set the coefficient of the conversion function and / or the correction function to be applied to the second measurement value of the second measurement area by using the first measurement value and the second measurement value acquired in the common measurement area. .

First, when the color spaces of the first measurement value and the second measurement value are different, there is a conversion function for converting the second measurement value to the color space of the first measurement value, for example, a conversion matrix having a predetermined size. This may exist. There may also be a correction function for correcting the accuracy of the second measurement, for example a correction matrix having a predetermined size. Here, the conversion and correction of the color space may be sequentially performed, but the conversion and correction may be performed by integrating the color space conversion function and the accuracy correction function, which may be collectively referred to as conversion.

For example, the correction means of the present invention uses a known color space transform function or uses a color space transform function obtained by using a known prior learning method for optimizing the characteristics of a specimen. 2 The color space of the measured values can be converted. The coefficient of the correction function may be obtained between the second measured value and the first measured value whose color space of the common measurement area is converted. As a method of obtaining a coefficient of the correction function, various known methods such as least square method, which are used to estimate an optimal function parameter using samples of the input and output values of the function, can be used. For example, when the first measured value is the tristimulus value XYZ and the second measured value is the RGB data, the RGB data having the resolution in the common measurement area is converted into the tristimulus color space to generate a map of the tristimulus values, and then the common The map of the generated tristimulus values may be corrected using the tristimulus values measured in the measurement area.

Alternatively, when the transformation and the correction are performed together as described above, the coefficient of the transformation function that is performed by integrating the color space transformation and the accuracy correction of the second measured value may be obtained. In this case, coefficients of the transform function may be directly obtained by using the second measurement value and the first measurement value of the common measurement area, and known coefficient estimation methods may also be used here. For example, when the first measured value is the tristimulus value XYZ and the second measured value is the RGB data, the RGB data is measured between the tristimulus value measured in the common measurement area and the RGB data having the resolution in the common measurement area. An optimal transform coefficient or transform matrix that converts to the stimulus value may be obtained. In this case, for example, a known closed loop process may be used to estimate and obtain a transform coefficient.

On the other hand, when the color space of the first measurement value and the second measurement value are the same, color space conversion is unnecessary and only correction can be considered. Therefore, the coefficient of the correction function between the first measurement value and the second measurement value in the common measurement area can be obtained using the above-described coefficient estimation and acquisition method.

Once the coefficients of the transform function and / or the correction function are determined as described above, the correction means applies the determined coefficients to the second measured values of the second measurement area to perform the transform and / or correction on the second measured values. Can be done. Therefore, even in the second measurement area other than the first measurement area and the common measurement area in which the first measurement value is measured by the more accurate first measuring device, the second measurement value can be converted and / or corrected to obtain a more accurate measurement value. . That is, since the common measurement area is an area in which both the first measurement value with relatively high measurement accuracy and the second measurement value with low measurement accuracy are obtained, the first and second measurement values acquired in the common measurement area are described in detail. The conversion and / or correction coefficients may be obtained as described above, and the conversion and / or correction coefficients thus obtained are applied to second measurement values having spatial resolution in the second measurement area to perform the conversion and / or correction. By doing so, more accurate measurements with spatial resolution can be obtained.

In the present invention, the method of converting and / or correcting the second measured value using the first measured value is not limited to the above-described method. In addition, the method of the first and second measuring instruments having different accuracy as in the present invention Various known methods may be applied for converting and / or correcting a second measurement with spatial resolution based on the more accurate first measurement in a hybrid system.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the light measuring device may include a plurality of second measuring devices. In this case, at least some of the second measuring regions of the plurality of second measuring instruments may have overlapping regions, and the common measuring regions of the first and second measuring regions may be located in the overlapping regions. Referring to FIGS. 6A and 6B, in the above embodiment, a plurality of second measuring instruments captures the specimen 3 separately, and a part of the second measuring regions 2 photographed by each second measuring instrument overlaps. And the first measuring region 1 of the first measuring instrument in a part of the overlapping region so that the common measuring region 1 is located in the overlapping region. In this case, the first measured value may be equally applied to the second measured values of the second measuring devices photographing the overlapped area, and thus correction and / or conversion may be performed. Therefore, in the above embodiment, the measurement can be performed on a larger area of the sample, or the measurement can be performed at a larger resolution, thereby improving the measurement space resolution. In addition, since the second measured values of the plurality of second measuring instruments are corrected and / or converted based on the common first measured values obtained in the overlapping area, the second measured values are corrected or uniformed based on a uniform reference throughout the entire sample. There is an advantageous effect that can be converted.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the optical measuring device may include a plurality of second measuring devices and a plurality of first measuring devices. In this case, at least some of the second measuring regions of the plurality of second measuring instruments may have overlapping regions, and the common measuring regions of the first and second measuring regions may be located in the overlapping regions. In addition, the first measurement areas of the plurality of first measuring devices may have at least two or more common measurement areas in the overlapping area. Referring to FIG. 7, in the above embodiment, in the overlapping area of the second measuring area 2 photographed by each second measuring device, a different measuring area is formed by using the plurality of first measuring devices 1. It is possible to perform the calibration and / or conversion by metering and applying the first measured value measured by each first measuring device to the second measured values of the second measuring devices photographing the area measured by the first measuring device. In this case, since the first measurement region can be set locally to measure the first measurement value of each region, and correction and / or conversion can be performed using the first measurement region. 2 There is an advantageous effect that the correction and / or conversion accuracy of the measured value is further improved.

In an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the example of FIG. 8, the second optical path section of one second measuring instrument 200a and the second light of another second measuring instrument 200b, among the plurality of second measuring instruments, are illustrated. The path section may have a different angle from the light emitting surface or the light reflecting surface of the sample. As a result, in the above embodiment, the specimens may be simultaneously measured at different viewing angles. In the example of FIG. 8, the second meter 200a may obtain a second measurement value at the front of the sample, and the second meter 200b may obtain a second measurement value at the side of the sample. The second measurement values may be converted and / or corrected according to the method described above using the first measurement value obtained by the first meter 100. In the prior art, since one camera and one spectral colorimeter are used, in order to measure a specimen at various viewing angles in the inspection process, there is a problem in that the three stimulus values are corrected by measuring a plurality of times while changing the viewing angle. However, in the above embodiment, since the plurality of second measuring devices are disposed at various angles and simultaneously photographed, and the second measuring values of various viewing angles are simultaneously corrected and / or converted into the first measuring values obtained by the common first measuring device. There is an advantageous effect that can be corrected and / or converted.

In the optical measuring apparatus of the present invention, a computing circuit including at least one electronic circuit or processor 300 and at least one memory 400 as shown in FIG. It may be integrated or interoperate within the optical measuring device of the invention. Here, the computing circuit may include a known input / output device and a storage device in addition to the electronic circuit or the processor 300 and the memory 400. In addition, the processor may be not only a general-purpose processor such as a CPU or a DSP, but also an ASIC, an FPGA designed to perform the above-described functions, and may also be implemented as an equivalent logic circuit, or any combination of at least one or more thereof. It may be implemented in other hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. In addition, although the electronic circuit or processor for performing the above-described correction or control function of the optical measuring device of the present invention may exist separately from the first and second measuring devices as shown in FIG. 9, the first measuring device or the second measuring device may be It can also be integrated into electronic circuits or processors.

Hereinafter, a method of measuring light received from a specimen in an optical measuring device will be described. Here, the method of measuring the light of the present invention may be performed in the same manner as that of the light measuring device of the present invention described in detail above.

In the method of measuring light of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 10, a first measurement value is generated using a first measuring device (S100), a second measurement value is generated using a second measuring device (S200), And a correction step S300 of performing at least one of conversion and correction on the second measured value based on the result. Generating the first measured value (S100) receives a first light from the first measuring area of the sample with a first measuring device, and generates at least one first measured value from the received first light. Generating a second measurement value (S200) may be performed by receiving a second light from a second measurement area of a sample with a second measuring device, and generating a second set of measurement values having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light. Create The correction step S300 performs at least one of conversion and correction on the second measurement value based on the first measurement value. Here, at least one of correction and conversion may be performed based on an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section. The step of generating the first measurement and the step of generating the second measurement may be performed regardless of which step is performed first or both steps are performed simultaneously.

Here, the first measuring device and the second measuring device have a common measuring area in which the first measuring area and the second measuring area overlap at least partially, and extend from one point in the common measuring area of the optical path of the first light to the first measuring device. The first optical path section and the second optical path section extending from the one point of the optical paths of the second light leading to the second measuring device are arranged such that they do not overlap each other and form an angle within a range greater than 0 ° and less than 180 °. . In this case, the light incident on the optical measuring device may be incident on the first measuring unit and the second measuring unit without passing through a light dividing means for dividing the light into a plurality of directions and directing them in different directions.

The method of measuring light of the present invention may further include changing an angle between the first light path section and the second light path section based on the distance between the light measuring device and the specimen. In this case, at least one of the position of the first measuring device, the optical axis and the optical system, and the position of the second measuring device, the optical axis and the optical system may be changed to change the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section. The setting of the optical system may be known setting values such as a focal length and a light exposure value in the optical system configuring the measuring device.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when the optical measuring device includes a plurality of second measuring devices, the second measuring areas of the plurality of second measuring devices have an overlapping area of at least a part of the plurality of second measuring devices, and the common measuring area is In a state in which it is located in the overlapping area, the first measuring device may generate the first measured value and the second measuring device may generate the second measured value.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when the optical measuring device includes a plurality of first measuring devices, the first measuring areas of the plurality of first measuring devices are configured to have at least two or more common measuring areas in the overlapping area. In, the first measuring device may generate the first measurement and the second measuring device may generate the second measurement.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the second optical path section of any one of the second meter and the second optical path section of the other second meter may include a light emitting surface or a light reflecting surface of the sample. With different angles of, the first measuring device can generate the first measured value and the second measuring device can generate the second measured value.

Hereinafter, the optical measuring system of the present invention will be described. Some overlapping descriptions are omitted, and the optical measuring system of the present invention may operate in the same manner as the optical measuring device described above in detail.

The optical measuring system of the present invention includes a first measuring device, a second measuring device, and a correction circuit. The first meter receives the first light from the first measurement region of the specimen and generates at least one first measurement from the received first light. The second meter receives a second light from the second measurement area of the sample and generates a second set of measurement values having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light. The correction circuit performs at least one of the conversion and the correction for the second measurement based on the first measurement. The first measuring instrument and the second measuring instrument have a common measuring region in which the first measuring region and the second measuring region overlap at least partially, and extend from one point in the common measuring region of the optical path of the first light to the first measuring instrument. The first optical path section and the second optical path section extending from the one point of the optical paths of the second light leading to the second measuring device are arranged such that they do not overlap each other and form an angle within a range greater than 0 ° and less than 180 °. . The light incident on the light measuring system may be incident on the first measuring device and the second measuring device without passing through a light dividing means for dividing the light into a plurality of pieces and directing the light in different directions.

The optical measuring system of the present invention may include the above-described first meter, second meter and at least one processor. And the processor may be configured to perform at least one of conversion and correction for the second measurement based on the first measurement. Here, at least one of the conversion and the correction for the second measured value may be performed based on the angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section. The optical measuring system may change an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section based on the distance between the optical measuring device and the specimen.

In one embodiment the optical measuring system comprises a plurality of second measuring instruments, wherein the second measuring regions of the plurality of second measuring instruments have a region at least partially overlapping, and the common measuring region is located within the overlapping region. can do. In one embodiment, the optical measuring system may include a plurality of first measuring devices, and the first measuring areas of the plurality of first measuring devices may have at least two or more common measuring areas in the overlapping area. In one embodiment, the second optical path section of one of the second measuring instruments and the second optical path section of the other second measuring instrument have an angle between the light emitting surface or the light reflecting surface of the sample. can be different.

The optical measuring device, optical measuring system, and optical measuring method of the present invention can be used for the evaluation of optical characteristics of flat panel displays such as OLED, LCD, PDP, high resolution display, inspection of gamma, uniformity, moire, viewing angle characteristics, etc. in the display field. Can be used. In addition, it can be used for evaluation of optical properties, uniformity, moire, etc. of flat panel lighting in the lighting field.

The order of operations described in the methods or processes disclosed herein is described as an example. Thus, if necessary, the order of the steps may be adjusted within the spirit of the present invention. In addition, the apparatus and system disclosed herein may include means for performing the functions described herein, and may be implemented as an independent apparatus or system, or may be present in the form of interworking or integration with other systems, as needed. .

The techniques described herein may be implemented at least in part in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. These may be implemented, for example, in one or more processors, DSP, ASIC, FPGA, or equivalent logic circuit, or any combination of at least one or more of these. Such hardware, software, and firmware may be implemented within one or a plurality of systems or devices to support the operations and functions disclosed herein, or may be implemented in conjunction with or integrated with another system or device. . In addition, the components described herein may be implemented separately or together with separate but interoperable logic devices. Each function and operation described separately in this specification is described as such to emphasize each function, and such functions are not to be realized on separate hardware, firmware, or software components, and may be common or It may be integrated into a combination of separate hardware and / or software.

In addition, the techniques described herein may be implemented or stored in a computer readable storage medium including instructions. Instructions stored on the computer readable medium may cause the processor to cause methods and operations associated with the instructions to be performed. Computer readable storage media may include RAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD-ROM, magnetic media, optical media, or other storage media.

1st measuring area
2 second measurement area
3 specimen
10 spectral colorimeter
20 RGB camera
30 beam splitter
100 first measuring instrument
200 second measuring instrument

Claims (10)

In the optical measuring device,
First measuring means for receiving a first light from a first measurement region of a specimen and generating at least one first measurement value from the received first light;
Second measuring means for receiving a second light from the second measurement region of the specimen and generating a second set of measurement values having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light; And
Correction means for performing at least one of conversion and correction for the second measurement value based on the first measurement value,
The first measuring means and the second measuring means,
The first measurement region and the second measurement region have a common measurement region at least partially overlapping,
A first optical path section extending from a point in the common measurement region of the optical path of the first light to the first measuring means, and extending from the one point of the optical path of the second light to the second measuring means So that the second optical path sections that do not overlap each other are angled within a range greater than 0 ° and less than 180 °,
Deployed,
And the correction means further performs at least one of conversion and correction on the second measured value based on an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section and light distribution information of the sample. , Optical measuring device. The method of claim 1,
And the second measuring means generates the second measured value for every area in the second measuring area. The method of claim 1,
The position of the first measuring means, the optical axis and the optical system, and the second measuring means connected to the first measuring means and the second measuring means to change an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section. And measuring means for changing at least one of a position of the measuring means, an optical axis and an optical system setting. delete The method of claim 1,
Light incident on the optical measuring device is incident on the first measuring means and the second measuring means without passing through a plurality of light splitting means for dividing the light into a plurality of directions and directing them in different directions. Device. The method of claim 1,
The optical measuring device includes a plurality of the second measuring means,
The second measuring region of the plurality of second measuring means has a region in which at least a portion overlaps, and the common measuring region is located in the overlapping region. The method of claim 6,
The optical measuring device includes a plurality of the first measuring means,
The first measuring region of the plurality of first measuring means has at least two or more of the common measuring regions in the overlapping region. The method of claim 1,
The first measuring means is any one of a spectral photometer, a spectral colorimeter, a spectral radiometer, a photoelectric photometer, a photochromic meter, a photoelectric radiation meter,
And the second measuring means is any one of a camera having a spatial resolution, an image photometer, and an image colorimeter. In the optical measuring device for measuring the light received from the sample,
Receiving a first light from a first measurement region of the sample with a first meter and generating at least one first measurement from the received first light;
Receiving a second light from a second measurement area of the sample with a second meter and generating a second set of measurements having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light; And
A correction step of performing at least one of conversion and correction on the second measurement value based on the first measurement value,
The first measuring unit and the second measuring unit,
The first measurement region and the second measurement region have a common measurement region at least partially overlapping,
A first optical path section extending from a point in the common measurement region of the optical path of the first light to the first meter, and a second extension from the one point of the optical path of the second light to the second meter So that the two optical path sections do not overlap each other and form an angle within a range greater than 0 ° and less than 180 °,
Deployed,
The correcting may further include performing at least one of conversion and correction on the second measured value based on an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section and light distribution information of the sample. , A method of measuring light received from a sample. In the optical measuring system,
A first meter receiving a first light from a first measurement region of a specimen and generating at least one first measurement from the received first light;
A second meter receiving a second light from the second measurement area of the specimen and generating a second set of measurement values having a predetermined spatial resolution from the received second light; And
A correction circuit for performing at least one of conversion and correction for the second measurement value based on the first measurement value,
The first measuring unit and the second measuring unit,
The first measurement region and the second measurement region have a common measurement region at least partially overlapping,
A first optical path section extending from a point in the common measurement region of the optical path of the first light to the first meter, and a second extension from the one point of the optical path of the second light to the second meter So that the two optical path sections do not overlap each other and form an angle within a range greater than 0 ° and less than 180 °,
Deployed,
The correction circuit may further perform at least one of conversion and correction on the second measured value based on an angle between the first optical path section and the second optical path section and light distribution information of the sample. Optical measuring system.

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