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SICE Annual Conference 2012

August 20-23, 2012, Akita University, Akita, Japan

Double Corner Cube Method for Enhancing the Sensitivity of Straightness Measurement
Tung-Shiuan Pan1, Ju-Yi Lee1*, Szu-Wei Wu1, Hung-Lin Hsieh2, Cheng-Chih Hsu3
1

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Central University, Taiwan


(Tel: 886-3-4267307; E-mail: juyilee@ncu.edu.tw)
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
3Department of Photonics Engineering, Yuan Ze University, 135 Yuan-Tung Road, Chung-Li, 32003 Taiwan
Abstract:
A method of straightness measurement utilizing two corner cubes is proposed. The architectural design of the
system leads to the magnification of the displacement of a light spot on the detector with the same offset of the
determinand. This method enhances the sensitivity of the system and raises the precision to about 5 m.
Keywords: straightness, corner cube, quadrant detector

1. INTRODUCTION

2. MEASUREMENT PRINCIPLES

In straightness measurement we search for the degree


similarity of a segment to a straight line. This kind of
measurement is one dimensional and can be expressed in
many kinds of measurement terminologies, for example,
flatness measurement which is straightness measurement
with two dimensions, roundness, sphericity and so on.
All of these are extensively applied in industrial
manufacturing.
Long-range motion stages are widely used in many
fields, such as precision engineering, metrology,
nanotechnology, lithography applications, as well as
advanced scientific applications [15]. Normally, these
motion stages are expected to move in a straight and
precise manner in each direction. However, in practice,
fabrication errors in the motion system can result in
motion error that appears as movement in an orthogonal
direction from the proposed movement path. This kind of
error is called straightness error [6] and will influence the
real performance of the application system. To achieve
the high-resolution positioning needed, methods for
straightness or linear displacement measurement are
becoming more important.
The two basic types of straightness measurement
methods usually applied are optical interferometry and
the geometric optics method. For example, in our
previous work, we designed a heterodyne grating
interferometer based on a quasi-common-optical-path
(QCOP) [7] for two-degree-of-freedom straightness
measurement. In spite of the fact that our heterodyne
grating interferometer provides the high measurement
sensitivity and resolution, its cost is quit high and the
optical configuration is complex due to the optical
modulator and demodulator used. In contrast, the optical
configuration of the geometric optics method is much
simpler, and is used in autocollimators, alignment
telescopes and optical theodolites [8]. Numerous studies
in the literature [9-10] have reported results related to
such measurement systems. Straightness measurement
can be carried out by detecting the lateral displacement
of a laser beam with a four-quadrant detector and
corner-cubes. Generally, the geometric optics method is
low cost and has a sub-micrometer accuracy.

The purpose of this study is to enhance the


straightness measurement sensitivity of the traditional
geometric optical system. As shown in Fig.1, corner cube
#1 is placed on a moving linear stage for straightness
measurement. The light beam from the laser propagates
between corner cubes #1 and #2, to be finally received
by the four-quadrant detector. The path of propagation of
the light beam in this system is 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Double corner cube configuration for straightness


measurement.
Given their characteristics, the distances from the
center axis of the corner cube to the incident light and
reflected light are equal. As shown in Fig. 2, D is the
distance between the incident laser beam 12 and the
center axis of corner cube #2. Suppose the distance
between the incident beam 12 and the center axis of
corner cube #1 is a, and the distance between the
reflected beam 34 and the incident beam 12 is 2a. We
can obtain the distance between the original incident
beam 12 and the final reflected beam 78 as follows:
d=2(2a-D). When the corner cube #1 moves down x,
the laser beam has lateral displacement (dashed line), and
the length of a will change to a+x. The distance between
the original incident beam and the final reflected beam is
d=2(2(a+x)-D). Therefore, the displacement of the
final reflected beam is x=d-d=4x. The beam
displacement is four times the displacement of corner
cube 1. It is twice as large as the result in reference [8].

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PR0001/12/0000- 1010 400 2012 SICE

1
0.8

Ours

0.6

Fen's

0.4
0.2

fx 0
-0.2
-0.4

The intensity distribution of the light beam on the


four-quadrant detector can be written as a Gaussian
function [8]
(1)
I = I 0 exp(2(x 2 + y 2 ) w 2 ) ,
as shown in Fig. 3, where w is the beam waist,
I0=2P/ w2 and P is the total light power of the laser
beam. The four-quadrant detector is made up of the
quadrant detectors for A, B, C and D, and the light power
distributed on these four detectors can be written as
(2)
q = I 0 exp(2(x 2 + y 2 ) w 2 )dxdy ,
q

q=A, B, C, or D is the integral range of the quadrant. The


relationship between the beam displacement and the
currents is determined using [11]
( + ) ( B + C ) ,
(3)
fx = A D
( A + B + C + D )
( + ) (C + D ) .
(4)
fy = B A
( A + B + C + D )
y
A

B
(x0, y0)

x
(0,0)
C

Fig. 3 Intensity distribution of the light beam on the


four-quadrant detector.
As shown in Fig. 3, if the center (x0, y0) of the
four-quadrant detector is not located at the beam center
(0,0), the light powers on these four detectors are not
symmetric, resulting in the change of fx and fy. Fig. 4
shows the relationship between the displacement and fx
which is calculated by MATLAB, with a beam waist
w=0.5 mm. Compared with Feng and Fans method, the
proposed method has twice the measurement sensitivity.
Future experiments will demonstrate the performance of
this measurement system.

Feng's

-0.6

Fig. 2 Illustration of the corner cube measurement


principle.

-0.8
-1

-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2

0.2 0.4

0.6 0.8

x displacement (mm)
Fig. 4 Relationship between the displacement x and fx.

3. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The experiments demonstrating the capability of
the architecture design described above are now
discussed. As shown in Fig. 5, in the experiments with
one corner cube, the laser beam propagating from the
laser to corner cube #1 is 25.4 mm diameter. It is then
reflected back through the beam splitter to the detector.
The beam splitter, which can be replaced with a mirror,
solves the problem of the detector being so large in size
that it may block the propagation of the beam from the
laser. This problem also can be solved by enlarging the
size of corner cube #1.
The two corner cube experiment is shown in Fig 6.
The design is similar to the framework of the one corner
cube experiment but with one more corner cube #2
which has a diameter of 10mm being fixed near the laser.
The beam is again reflected back to corner cube #1 to
again enhance the beam spot displacement on the
detector.
The entire apparatus, except for corner cube #1, is still
fixed on the motorized stage so it can move in a direction
orthogonal to the incident beam from the laser. With the
motion of corner cube #1, there will be a corresponding
displacement of the light spot received by the detector.
The long range motion experiment is designed to
change the direction of the stage to parallel to the
direction of the laser beam. The distance of the travel
path is 300 mm.
In many studies of straightness measurement it is
claimed that interference from the offset of the corner
cubes angle can be ignored. To check on this inference
related to angle offset, we design an experiment for
rotational motion as shown in Fig 7. In the experimental
design the moving stage is replaced, as shown in the
architecture in Fig 6, with a rotational stage to let corner
cube #1 rotate.

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step in the one corner cube system is 0.04 V, meaning the


sensitivity is about 4 V/mm. Compared to the results for
the two corner cube system, the signal per step is 0.08V.
The sensitivity is about 8 V/mm. We can also conjecture
that the precision of the two corner cube system will be
about 5 m, as can be seen from Fig 10.
two corner cubes

Fig. 5 Experiments for step motion and long-range


motion with one corner cube.

one corner cube

Fig. 6 Experiments for step motion and long-range


motion with two corner cubes.

Fig. 8 Results of the step motion experiment with the


voltage signal received by the detector. The distance of
one step is 10 m.
Fig 9 shows the voltage signal which represents the
straightness error for corner cube #1 with long-range
motion. It is obvious that the direction of the movement
of the stage is not parallel to the direction of the laser
beam propogating through corner cube #1. Though both
of the two systems have straightness error, the amount of
voltage from the two corner cube system is always larger.
This again proves that the displacement of the beam
received by the detector is enhanced.
0.4

Fig. 7 Experiment for rotational motion with two corner


cubes.

one corner cube


-0.4
-0.8

RESULTS
To show the utility of enhancing the displacement
of the light spot on the detector by the additional corner
cube, we respectively measured the results of the two
systems.
The voltage signals from the detector with the step
motion of corner cube #1 are shown in Fig. 8. The
distance of one step is 10 m. We can see that the signals
with two corner cubes are always larger than the signals
with one corner cube. This can indicate that the
displacement of the light spot on the detector is enlarged,
so the signal the detector receives will be
correspondingly enhanced.
The distance of the step is the same in the two
systems, but with the enhancement of the voltage signal,
the sensitivity will be enlarged. From the results in Fig 8
we see that the variation of the voltage signal per each

volt signal(V)

4. DISCUSSION OF EXPERIMENTAL

-1.2

two corner cubes


-1.6
-2

Fig. 9 Voltage signal received by the detector with


long-range motion.
We also tested the systems stability. Fig. 10 shows
the signal vibration of the two systems. The range of
vibration is larger with the two corner cube system than
with the one corner cube system. This means that not
only the displacement by motion but also the influence
from the surroundings has been enlarged.

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[3].

[4].
one corner cube
two corner cubes

[5].

Fig. 10 Displacement of the light spot on the detector.


[6].

The straightness error for corner cube #1 with


rotational motion is shown in Fig. 11. The signals show
vibration in a range similar to the results shown in Fig.
10 which has no motion. We learn from this that the
angle of offset of corner cube #1 has almost no
interference on the straightness measurement.

[7].

[8].

[9].

[10].
Fig. 11 Straightness error when corner cube #1 has
rotation motion.

5. CONCLUSION

[11].

We propose a double corner cube straightness


measurement method that enlarges the sensitivity of the
system and frees it from the influence of rotational
motion.
Compared with the one corner system, the two
corner system magnifies the displacement of the light
beam to enhance the sensitivity of the system, but the
measurement range is correspondingly reduced. The
experimental results demonstrate the precision of our
measurement system which can reach about 5 m.

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