ELECTRONIC IMAGE CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

An apparatus and method electronically registers or aligns ideal raster data to real raster data for subsequent processes such as inspection systems and defect detection systems. The electronic image registration system receives ideal and real images in scrolling stacks or buffers wide enough to hold the width of the image and high enough to hold the difference in a skewed image. In other words, the real and ideal upper corners must be contained within the stacks for any kind of misalignment or distortion. Each stack has a "funnel" to randomly access frames of image in the vertical direction. Each stack image frame is moved horizontally out of its lower swath and into its new position in the next upper swath. Horizontal movement of each stack is independent, such that adjustable sequential access in the horizontal direction is available. The real image stream stack funnel addressing and clocking are held fixed during the registration phase, while the ideal image stream stack funnel address and clocking are in constant adjustment.