Patent ID: 7030982

Claim:
A method of determining an effective thickness of a material caused to accumulate on a surface, in uncorrelated combination with determination of optical constants of said material, comprising the steps of: a) providing an oscillating means having a surface area, said oscillating means being a part of an oscillator circuit such that it is caused to physically vibrate or support resonant or non-resonant acoustic waves when electrical potential is applied thereto; b) simultaneously or sequentially: b1) causing material to accumulate onto the surface of said oscillating means before and/or while it is caused to vibrate and/or support resonant or non-resonant acoustic waves at a frequency; and b2) causing a beam of electromagnetic radiation to interact with said surface area of said oscillating means and then enter a data detector; c) in functional conjunction with step b) determining a relationship between a change in frequency of said oscillating means vs. effective thickness material accumulated thereupon, and providing a mathematical model of the oscillating means and accumulated material system which includes said effective thickness, and optical constants of the accumulated material; d) analyzing change in frequency of said oscillating means to determine effective thickness of said accumulated material, and performing regression of the data detector provided data onto said mathematical model to determine optical constants of said accumulated material in view of said determined effective thickness.