A surface profile reconstruction system using sinusoidal phase-modulating interferometry and fiber-optic fringe projection

• We establish an all-fiber interferometer with high-density interference fringe projection.
• We build a closed-loop phase compensation system with a good suppression property for external disturbances.
• The feasibility for real-time profile reconstruction has been verified by reconstructing a paper plate’s surface profile.

A fiber-optic sinusoidal phase modulating (SPM) interferometer for surface profile reconstruction is presented. Sinusoidal phase modulation is created by modulating the drive voltage of the piezoelectric transducer. The surface profile is constructed basing on fringe projection. Fringe patterns are vulnerable to external disturbances such as temperature fluctuation and mechanical vibration, which cause phase drift and decrease measuring accuracy. We build a closed-loop feedback phase compensation system, the bias value of external disturbances superimposed on fringe patterns can be reduced to about 50 mrad, and the phase stability for interference fringes is less than 5.76 mrad. By measuring the surface profile of a paper plate for two times, the repeatability is estimated to be about 11 nm, and is equivalent to be about λ/69. For a plane with 100 × 100 points, a single measurement takes less than 140 ms, and the feasibility for real-time profile measurement with high accuracy has been verified.