METROLOGY FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Organization Name

Nikon Corporation

Inventor(s)

Eric Peter Goodwin of Oro Valley AZ US

Heather Lynn Durko of Tucson AZ US

Daniel Gene Smith of Tucson AZ US

Johnathan Agustin Marquez of San Francisco CA US

Michael Birk Binnard of Belmont CA US

Patrick Shih Chang of San Francisco CA US

Matthew Parker-McCormick Bjork of Davis CA US

Paul Derek Coon of Redwood City CA US

Brett William Herr of Menlo Park CA US

Motofusa Ishikawa of Ageo-shi JP

METROLOGY FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 20250130037 titled 'METROLOGY FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Original Abstract Submitted

3d metrology techniques are disclosed for determining a changing topography of a substrate processed in an additive manufacturing system. techniques include fringe scanning, simultaneous fringe projections, interferometry, and x-ray imaging. the techniques can be applied to 3d printing systems to enable rapid topographical measurements of a 3d printer powder bed, or other rapidly moving, nearly continuous surface to be tested. the techniques act in parallel to the system being measured to provide information about system operation and the topography of the product being processed. a tool is provided for achieving higher precision, increasing throughput, and reducing the cost of operation through early detection and diagnosis of operating problems and printing defects. these techniques work well with any powder bed 3d printing system, providing real-time metrology of the powder bed, the most recently printed layer, or both without reducing throughput.