Lens sag and diameter measurement of large-size microlenses using sub-pixel algorithm and optical interferometry

•An AOI system for measuring the diameter and sag of large-size microlens is proposed.•The diameter is measured through the an innovative sub-pixel algorithm.•The lens sag is estimated by integrating the diameter measurement algorithm.•1% (max) RMS error can be achieved by the proposed system.

In this paper, an automatic optical inspection system is designed specifically to measure the diameter and lens sag of large-size microlenses: 1. The proposed algorithm of measuring lens diameter locates the lens center through the Euclidean distance array, and determines the lens edge along an initiated ray using linear interpolation with sub-pixel accuracy. 2. The lens sag is calculated from a single fringe pattern of large-size microlens, in combination with the measured lens diameter. 3. According to the experiment results, the proposed system has advantages of high applicability, rapid processing speed, and good accuracy with the RMS error≤1% of measuring a large-size microlens, but without the requirement of prior training. The system architecture of non-contact measurement would not cause scratches on the lens surface and is inexpensive, thus, which is particularly suitable for the in-line inspection of industry field.