US Patent Issued to NIKON on Sept. 8 for "Optical device and inspection method" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,729,955, issued on Sept. 8, was assigned to NIKON Corp. (Tokyo).

"Optical device and inspection method" was invented by Naonori Kita (Tokyo) and Masanori Arai (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An optical device for inspecting a to-be-inspected surface having a riblet structure in which projections each extending in a first direction are provided in a second direction intersecting the first direction is configured to include a condensing optical system that irradiates an irradiation region on the to-be-inspected surface with light from a light source and that condenses light reflected by the irradiation region; and a photodetector tha...