Dark Field Technologies Announces NxtGen™ Wash

New Technology for Inspection of Washed Glass, TCO, Washer Residue and Integrated Panel Warp Metrology, NxtGen™ Wash

Dark Field Technologies has drawn on its two decades in the glass industry to develop a new metrology technique for washed panel applications. NxtGen™ Wash is a part of the new NxtGen™ family of inspection and metrology systems. NxtGen™ Wash embodies a host of unique benefits and performs all these functions 100% on-line, real-time.

• Special dark field optics detect defects much smaller than the optical pixel. High throughput rates and large depth of field are also achieved
• Detection of float glass defects
• Detection of edge chips/cracks and broken corners/flairs
• Detection of TCO coating defects and washer residue. Both types of defects are normally invisible to the eye, but cause downstream coating defects and reduced panel efficiency
• Panel width, length and squareness measurement
• Integrated panel thickness and warp measurement. Ability to measure panel warp/thickness or concentrator profile ±15 microns
• Automatic panel rejection if the panel falls outside of prescribed length, width, squareness, defect levels or warp specifications
• Low capital cost; greatest value system available (performance: cost)
• High-speed: over 500 million pixels are captured and analyzed in 3 seconds
• System supports laser, camera or laser: camera optics and divergent, telecentric and self-aligning optical systems – the only system in the world architected to support all these optical modules