Patent ID: 7224469

Claim:
A system for aligning of optical components, comprising: an interferometer configured to produce a beam and to detect fringes; a reference optic configured to reflect a portion of the beam back towards the interferometer as a reference beam and transmit a second portion of the beam; a diffractive element including first and second regions, the first region configured to reflect a first part of the second portion of the beam back towards the interferometer as a first measurement beam and the second region configured to diffract a second part of the second portion of the beam to produce a diffraction beam; and an optical element configured to reflect the diffraction beam back to the interferometer as a second measurement beam, wherein at least one of: (a) a first fringe is detected by the interferometer based on interference between the first measurement beam and the reference beam, such that the diffractive element is aligned based on the first fringe, and (b) a second fringe is detected by the interferometer based on interference between the second measurement beam and the reference beam, such that the optical element is aligned based on the second fringe.