Patent ID: 8855265

Claim:
An apparatus, serving as an interferometer setup and having an optical axis, said apparatus for imaging an object by means of electromagnetic waves or matter waves, wherein the object causes an altered phase information of the electromagnetic waves or matter waves according to a local refraction index, the apparatus comprising; a radiation source for emitting the electromagnetic waves or matter waves for transmission through said object; a radiation detector for detecting these electromagnetic waves or matter waves; and a pixel-correcting processor configured for gaining information representative of the object's local phase gradient (∂Φ(x, y)/∂x) in at least one transverse direction perpendicular to the interferometer setup's optical axis, wherein said processor is configured for determining the pixel positions of noisy pixels and/or determining at which pixel positions of a detected phase gradient image the local phase gradient exceeds a predefined threshold value and marking these pixels as “bad”, performing a line integration over the local phase gradient, thus yielding an integrated phase gradient image, analyzing the integrated phase gradient image for characteristic line artifacts occurring behind pixels of strong phase gradient which have been marked as “bad” and introducing a correction phase offset of 2π radians or an integer multiple thereof at the position of each “bad” pixel if analysis shows that a measured 2π phase offset error or an integer multiple thereof between immediately adjacent line artifacts which is induced by said line integration persists after passing a pixel that has been marked as “bad” so as to compensate said 2π phase offset error or an integer multiple thereof.