Appeal No. 97-0169
Application No. 08/194,369
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to an X-ray fluorescence coating thickness gauge
which measures the thickness of metal coatings applied to electronic components, etc.
The invention measures the thickness of any one of a variety of different samples without
requiring preliminary manual inputting of identification information for the particular sample
being measured. The invention uses a plurality of stored calibration curves, each one
representing a relationship between coating thickness and X-ray fluorescence intensity for
a respective reference sample having known constituents and a known coating thickness.
An understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of exemplary claim 1,
which appears below.
1. An X-ray fluorescence coating thickness gauge comprising:
memory means for storing a plurality of calibration curves, each curve
representing a relation between coating thickness and X-ray fluorescence
intensity for a respective reference sample having known constituents and
coating thickness; means for irradiating a test sample with a primary X-ray beam
collimated by a collimator; means for detecting X-ray fluorescence generated
from the test sample in response to irradiation by the primary X-ray beam; a
differentiating circuit for performing differential manipulation of the X-ray
fluorescence spectrum of the test sample based on the X-ray fluorescence
detected by said means for detecting and providing an output dependent on
constituents of the test sample; automatic identification means coupled to said
differentiating circuit for automatically identifying constituents of the test sample
based on the output from said differentiating circuit; automatic selecting means
coupled to said automatic identification means and to said memory means for
selecting from the stored calibration curves the calibration curve associated with
constituents which correspond most closely to the constituents identified by said
automatic identification means by comparing the constituents identified
by said automatic identification means with constituents associated with each of
the calibration curves; and means coupled to said automatic selecting means for
2
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Last modified: November 3, 2007