Three-dimensional optical metrology with color-coded extended depth of focus.

A novel method of rapid three-dimensional optical metrology that is based on triangulation of a configuration of color-coded light stripes is presented. The method exploits polychromatic illumination and a combined diffractive-refractive element, so the incident light is focused upon a stripe that is axially dispersed, greatly increasing the depth-measuring range without any decrease in the axial or the lateral resolution. The discrimination of each color stripe is further improved by spectral coding and decoding techniques. An 18-fold increase in the depth of focus was experimentally obtained while diffraction-limited light stripes were completely maintained.