Patent ID: 8018600

Claim:
An interferometer comprising: a light source; a light wave dividing and synthesizing portion which divides a light irradiated from the light source into a first light to be irradiated on a first reflecting plane and a second light to be irradiated on a second reflecting plane, the light wave dividing and synthesizing portion synthesizing the first light reflected by the first reflecting plane and the second light reflected by the second reflecting plane to form a synthesized light; a multiphase interference light generating portion which generates, from the synthesized light, a first interference light having a first phase, a second interference light having a second phase which is different from the first phase by 180 degrees, a third interference light having a third phase which is different from the first phase by 90 degrees and a fourth interference light having a fourth phase which is different from the first phase by 270 degrees; a light receiving portion which receives the first to fourth interference lights; an interference signal generating portion which generates a first interference signal, a second interference signal, a third interference signal and a fourth interference signal based on the first to fourth interference lights thus received; a 3-phase signal generating portion which generates a 3-phase signal having a phase difference of 90 degrees based on a difference between the first to fourth interference signals; and a 2-phase signal generating portion which carries out a vector synthesis over the 3-phase signal having a phase difference of 90 degrees, thereby generating a 2-phase signal having a phase difference of 90 degrees.