Promotes optimized user experience for optical metrology

(Middlefield, CT, USA 12th May 2022) Zygo Corporation, global leader in developing and supplying precision metrology instruments and optics, has announced the release of version 9.0 of its Mx software platform for complete instrument control and data analysis. Ease-of-use is central to two key new capabilities in Mx 9.0: support for Zygo's Verifire Asphere+ (VFA+) instrument, and the addition of a "Robust Films" module that allows easy measurement of very rough films.

Version 9.0 builds on the strengths of Zygo's Mx software, including interactive 3D maps, quantitative phase data, intuitive navigation, & built-in SPC with statistics, control charting, and pass/fail limits. The latest update allows users of the VFA+, Zygo's latest metrology platform designed to measure axisymmetric aspheres, to get from mounting a part to measurement and insight in just a few clicks. The user interface and software architecture have been redesigned from the customer's perspective, prioritizing ease of use and accessibility. The focus was to dramatically simplify the user interface, making it more graphical, and more task- and flow-oriented.

Martin Fay, Senior Scientist at Zygo says, "The key value proposition of our Mx software is to seamlessly integrate data acquisition and analysis. In real terms this means that a customer can mount a part, hit measure, and easily get all the way to a final report and high-value results. The software does not just produce a map to be exported to a different software package for analysis. With Mx, customers can get beyond raw measurement data to an understanding of what it means."

Mx 9.0 also provides a general toolkit for asphere analysis. Aspheres are made for numerous industry sectors and span a wide range of sizes and geometries, and customers can measure aspheres using a variety of ZYGO optical metrology instruments. The Mx asphere analysis toolkit can be used with any instrument, in alignment with the user's job steps — design, make, measure, and analyze.

Fay continues. "Mx 9.0 is the first release that supports the VFA+, an instrument designed specifically for the measurement of aspheres which traditional interferometers struggle to measure. The software has been designed from the perspective of the user's goals: design and produce a manufacturable asphere, then measure it to determine how much the produced asphere deviates from the design."

Mx 9.0 improves the user experience for other applications as well, including measuring parts with transparent films. With this latest release, Zygo has advanced the state of the art in signal processing for optical profilers, enabling characterization of rough films on a rough substrate that have always proved challenging. These advances are now built in to Mx 9.0, improving the robustness of coated surface metrology, and enabling characterization of a whole new range of surfaces.

Mx 9.0 is now shipping on all new metrology systems and is available for upgrades on supported instruments.

About Zygo

Zygo is a worldwide supplier of optical metrology instruments, high-precision optical components, and complex electro-optical systems, and Its products employ various optical phase and analysis techniques for measuring displacement, surface shape and texture, and film thickness. Electro-Optics and Optical Components businesses leverage Zygo's expertise in optical design and assembly, and high-volume manufacturing of precision optical components and systems, for the medical/life sciences, defense and industrial markets.