A non-scanning, non-interferometric, three-dimensional (3D) optical profilometer based on geometric optics, critical angle principle, and the use of a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera is presented. The surface profile of the test specimen can be transferred into the reflectance profile. The reflectance profile, obtained from a CCD, is the ratio of the intensity at the critical angle to the intensity obtained at the total internal reflection angle. The optical profilometer provides a sub-micron measuring range with nanometer resolution and can be used to measure roughness or surface defects in real time.

This study examines the use of reflectivity-height transformation in full-field angle-deviation microscopes (ADM). In such microscopes, two light intensity distribution images of a prism's total internal reflection and critical angle are obtained separately with two charge-coupled devices (CCDs), and are converted into a reflectivity profile point-to-point and then into angle of deviation matrix after the beam is reflected by the test sample; finally, the surface height of the sample is found through the triangular geometrical relationship. This method obtains the image through the effective imaging area of CCD. Once the two-dimensional (2D) image is obtained, the third dimension, height, is added to create a full-field 3D surface profile. Its conversion process is nonlinear; therefore, compensation must be made to reduce measurement errors. The optical magnification of high vertical resolution full-field 3D reflection-type ADM could reach >250 times, thus providing submicron measurements with nanometer vertical resolution and allowing for the simultaneous measurement of 2D and 3D images. Small defects on both transparent and nontransparent surfaces can be rapidly detected.