Diffractive Elements for Chromatic Confocal Sensors

Diffractive elements are increasingly used for white light applications. Two of the most important advantages of diffractive elements are their high dispersion and the design flexibility that computer generated diffractive elements offer. In this talk, we will discuss this on the example of chromatic confocal sensors. In chromatic confocal sensors, the height information is mapped into color information, thus eliminating the need for a mechanical z-scan. This allows to develop very fast sensor systems that can be miniaturized very well. In this talk we will discuss the fabrication and implementation of diffractive elements for chromatic confocal microscopy. We will give two examples: a line sensor and a miniaturized point sensor.