Interferometer having multiple scan carriages

摘要

An interferometer includes a fixed assembly including a base, a beam splitter assembly and a fixed mirror, and a movable assembly including an upper scan carriage, a lower scan carriage and a movable mirror connected to the lower scan carriage. The pair of inner bearing flexures is connected to the base and the upper scan carriage, enabling movement of the upper scan carriage relative to the base, and the pair of outer bearing flexures is connected to the upper and lower scan carriages, enabling movement of the lower scan carriage relative to the upper scan carriage. The movement of the upper and lower scan carriages enable a scan movement of the movable mirror in a scan direction restricted such that the scan movement maintains a plane containing the movable mirror parallel to planes containing the movable mirror at respective distances between the movable and fixed assemblies during the scan movement.

主权项

1. An interferometer, comprising:
a fixed assembly comprising a base, a beam splitter assembly configured to split light emitted from a light source into first and second portions of light, and a fixed mirror for reflecting the first portion of light; a movable assembly, movable with respect to the fixed assembly, comprising an upper scan carriage, a lower scan carriage and a movable mirror connected to the lower scan carriage for reflecting the second portion of light, wherein the beam splitter assembly is further configured to combine the reflected first and second portions of light into a recombined radiation beam; a pair of inner bearing flexures having ends connected to the base and ends connected to the upper scan carriage, enabling movement of the upper scan carriage relative to the base; and a pair of outer bearing flexures having ends connected to the upper scan carriage and ends connected to the lower scan carriage, enabling movement of the lower scan carriage relative to the upper scan carriage, wherein the movement of the upper scan carriage and the movement of the lower scan carriage enable a scan movement of the movable mirror in a scan direction restricted such that the scan movement maintains a plane containing the movable mirror parallel to a plurality of planes containing the movable mirror at respective distances between the movable assembly and the fixed assembly during the scan movement, and wherein the beam splitter assembly, the fixed mirror and the movable mirror are positioned within a space between the planes containing the pair of inner bearing flexures while in respective flat conditions.