Digital holography in production: an overview

Many challenging measurement tasks in production simultaneously have high requirements for accuracy, measurement field size, lateral sampling, and measurement time. In this paper, we provide an overview of the current state of the art in digital holography for surface topography measurements and present three applications from completely different productions with no alternative to digital holography; we describe the HoloTop sensor family, which has been designed specifically for industrial use, and present the most recent results achieved in real-life industrial applications. All applications address measurement tasks that could not be solved until now, either by optical or tactile means. We start with a description of the first-ever inline integration of a digital holographic measurement system that inspects precision turned parts for the automotive industry. We proceed by presenting measurements performed with a compact sensor that can be placed inside a tooling machine and operated fully wirelessly. In this case, the tool holder was used to position the sensor directly. Integration into a tooling machine places high demands on both robustness and reliability. Finally, the quality control of electronic interconnectors such as microbumps with the highest demand for accuracy and repeatability is demonstrated. All of these applications illustrate the major advantages of digital holographic systems: it is possible to measure a relatively large field of view with interferometric precision and very short acquisition times. Additionally, both reflective and matt surfaces can be measured simultaneously. We end this publication with an assessment of the future potential of this technology and the necessary development steps involved.