Patent attributes
A surface measurement instrument for obtaining surface characteristic data of a sample surface is described. Relative movement between a reference surface and a sample support is caused to occur while a sensor senses light intensity at intervals along a scan path to provide a series of intensity values representing interference fringes produced by a region of a sample surface during said relative movement and from which series of intensity values surface characteristic data can be derived. The sample support is both translatable and tiltable in at least one direction perpendicular to a scan direction so that the sample support can be both tilted to cause the scan path to be normal to the sample surface region and translated to compensate for translation movement due to the tilting.
