Profilometer

A profilometer is a measuring instrument used to measure the profile and surface finish of a surface, in order to quantify its roughness. Critical dimensions as step, curvature, flatness is computed from the surface topography. The common types of profilometers include: contact profilometer and non-contact profilometer (such as time-resolved profilometers and fiber-based optical profilometers). Advantages of contact profilometers include acceptance, surface independence, resolution, it is a direct technique with no modeling required. Advantages of non-contact profilometer are speed, reliability and spot size.