Patent ID: 7379191

Claim:
An apparatus for inspecting an optical system, comprising: a combination interferometer, comprising micro-optoelectromechanical components forming: a Twyman-Green interferometer, comprising: a first lens; a first beam splitter optically coupled to the first lens, wherein the first lens is positioned so that an output beam from the first lens is incident upon the first beam splitter; a first mirror optically coupled to the first beam splitter; a second lens optically coupled to the beam splitter, wherein the second lens is positioned so that an output beam from the first beam splitter that is not the output beam which is transmitted to the first mirror is incident upon the second lens; and a third lens optically coupled to the beam splitter, wherein the third lens is positioned so that an output beam form the first beam splitter that is a recombination of a beam from the first mirror and a beam from the second lens is incident upon the third lens; and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer optically coupled to receive output beams from the Twyman-Green interferometer, comprising: a second beam splitter optically coupled to the third lens of the Twyman Green interferometer; a second mirror optically coupled to the second beam splitter; a third mirror optically coupled to the second beam splitter; a pinhole aperture optically aligned between at least one of the second beam splitter and the second mirror and the second beam splitter and the third mirror; and a third beam splitter optically coupled to the second mirror and the third mirror, wherein the combination interferometer is compactly configured for embedding in the optical system.