Ideal Topographic Simulations for Null Measurement Data

A method is described for ideally reconstructing the profile from a surface profiling measurement containing a reasonable amount of null measurement data. The proposed method can conjecture lost information and rectify irregular data that result due to bad measuring environments, signal transmission noise, or instrument-induced errors, The method adopts the concept of computer graphics and consists of several processing steps. First, a search for valid data in the neighborhood of the null data is performed. The valid data are then grouped and their contours are extracted. By analyzing these contours, a bounding box can be obtained and the general distribution of the entire area encompassing the valid and null data is determined Finally, an ideal surface model is overlaid onto the measurement results based on the bounding box, generating a complete reconstruction of the calculations, A surface-profiling task on a liquid crystal display photo spacer is used to verify the proposed method. The results are compared to those obtained through the use of a scanning electron microscope to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method.