Patent ID: 7277181

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting surface profile of a test object, comprising: a light source for emitting a light beam; a beam splitter for dividing the light beam into reference and probing beams, the probing beam being directed to a surface of the test object and being reflected by the surface of the test object back to said beam splitter; a reflective component for receiving the reference beam from said beam splitter and for reflecting the reference beam back to said beam splitter; said beam splitter combining the reference beam reflected by said reflective component, and the probing beam reflected by the surface of the test object to result in a heterodyne light beam; a sensor for receiving the heterodyne light beam from said beam splitter and for converting the heterodyne light beam into a corresponding electrical signal; a carrier adapted to support the test object thereon and capable of relative movement with respect to said beam splitter in a scanning direction; and a computing device coupled to said sensor for recording the electrical signal converted by said sensor; wherein said reflective component is configured so that components of the reference beam that are reflected by said reflected component travel at different optical path lengths to said beam splitter; wherein said beam splitter combines the components of the reference beam with components of the probing beam reflected by a set of scanned segments of the surface of the test object to result in the heterodyne light beam for the scanned segments; wherein, when relative movement is generated between said carrier and said beam splitter in the scanning direction, said beam splitter is able to combine the components of the reference beam with components of the probing beam reflected by another set of scanned segments of the surface of the test object to result in another heterodyne light beam; wherein, said computing device, with reference to a path length gradient associated with the components of the reference beam, and information pertinent to the relative movement between said carrier and said beam splitter in the scanning direction, is operable so as to analyze the recorded electrical signals corresponding to the heterodyne light beams to determine the surface profile of the test object on at least one of the scanned segments.