Perfilometro

Profilometer is a measuring instrument used to measure a surface's profile, in order to quantify its roughness.

While the historical notion of a profilometer was a device similar to a phonograph that measures a surface as the surface is moved relative to the contact profilometer's stylus, this notion is changing with the emergence of numerous non-contact profilometery techniques.
Contents

1 Types 1.1 Contact profilometers 1.2 Non-contact profilometers 2 Road pavement profilometery 3 References 4 External links

Types
Original 1940s Taylor-Hobson Talysurf surface profile measuring machine

Optical methods[1][2]

Vertical Scanning Interferometry/White-light interferometer Phase Shifting Interferometry Differential interference contrast microscopy (Nomarski Microscopy) Focus detection methods Intensity Detection Focus variation Differential Detection Critical Angle Method Astigmatic Method Focault Method Confocal microscopy Pattern projection Methods Fringe projection Fourier Profilometry Moire

Contact and pseudo-contact methods[1][2]

Stylus profilometer (mechanical profilometer)[3] Atomic Force Microscopy Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Contact profilometers

A diamond stylus is moved vertically in contact with a sample and then moved laterally across the sample for a specified distance and specified contact force. A profilometer can measure small surface variations in vertical stylus displacement as a function of position. A typical profilometer can measure small vertical features ranging in height from 10 nanometres to 1 millimetre. The height position of the diamond stylus generates an analog signal which is converted into a digital signal stored, analyzed and displayed. The radius of diamond stylus ranges from 20 nanometres to 50 μm, and the horizontal resolution is controlled