Patent ID: 7583392

Claim:
A surface profile measuring apparatus for measuring a surface profile of an object, comprising: a light source assembly configured for providing parallel light; a spatial light modulator having a liquid crystal display pixel structure and positioned to receive the light from the light source assembly, the liquid crystal display pixel structure comprising a plurality of pixel cells; a spectroscope for being positioned between the spatial light modulator and the object, the spectroscope being configured for transmitting the light from the spatial light modulator and reflecting the light from the object; a wave-front sensor positioned to receive the light reflected from the spectroscope and configured for acquiring a wave-front slope value of the light corresponding to each pixel of the spatial light modulator; and a control-processing device electrically connected to the spatial light modulator and the wave-front sensor and configured for controlling turn-on/turn-off of each of pixel cells of the spatial light modulator to transmit/reflect the light and processing the wave-front slope value output from the wave-front sensor to acquire the surface profile of the object.