Patent ID: 8310683

Claim:
An apparatus for determining surface topology of a portion of a three dimensional structure, comprising: a probing member with a sensing face; an illumination unit configured for transmitting an array of incident light beams towards the three dimensional structure along an optical path through said probing member and said sensing face to generate illuminated spots on said portion; an optical system configured for focusing said array of incident light beams at a plurality of focal planes forward said sensing face; a detector unit configured for measuring intensity of each of a plurality of returned light beams returning from said illuminated spots; and a processor coupled to said detector, the processor configured for determining a spot-specific position for each of said plurality of returned light beams and, based on each of the determined spot-specific positions, generating data representative of the surface topology of said portion, wherein each spot-specific position corresponds to a position of the respective focal plane in the plurality of focal planes providing maximum intensity of the respective returned light beam.