Abstract: The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining the height of a number of spatial positions on the sample, defining a height map of a surface through interferometry with a broadband light source. The method can involve for each spatial position: obtaining a correlogram during scanning of the surface plane of the objective and estimating the point of the correlogram where an amplitude of the correlogram is at its maximum, thus determining an approximation of the height of the spatial position on the sample. The estimation of the value where the correlogram has its maximum can involve subjecting the correlogram to a Fourier transform, subjecting the Fourier transformed signal to a filter, subjecting the filtered signal to an inverse Fourier transform, and calculating the location of the center of mass of the inversed filtered Fourier transformed signal.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining the height of a number of spatial positions on the sample, defining a height map of a surface through interferometry with a broadband light source. The method can involve for each spatial position: obtaining a correlogram during scanning of the surface plane of the objective and estimating the point of the correlogram where an amplitude of the correlogram is at its maximum, thus determining an approximation of the height of the spatial position on the sample. The estimation of the value where the correlogram has its maximum can involve subjecting the correlogram to a Fourier transform, subjecting the Fourier transformed signal to a filter, subjecting the filtered signal to an inverse Fourier transform, and calculating the location of the centre of mass of the inversed filtered Fourier transformed signal.