ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,305,980, issued on May 20, was assigned to Zygo Corp. (Middlefield, Conn.).
"Optical contact metrology" was invented by Leslie L. Deck (Middletown, Conn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for measuring a bond gap includes receiving a light beam at a first interferometer cavity and a reference interferometer cavity, in which the first interferometer cavity is defined by a first surface and a contact interface, and the contact interface is defined by a contact gap less than 1 micro metre. The method includes determining a first interference amplitude of the first interferometer cavity and a second interference amplitude of the refere...