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Controlling Images Parameters in the Reconstruction Process of Digital Holograms

Pietro Ferraro, Member, IEEE, Giuseppe Coppola, Domenico Aleri, Sergio De Nicola, Andrea Finizio, and Giovanni Pierattini

AbstractDigital holograms recorded with a charge-coupled device array are numerically reconstructed in amplitude and phase through calculation of the FresnelKirchhoff integral. The exibility offered by the reconstruction process in digital holography allows exploitation of new possibilities of application in microscopy. Through the reconstruction process we will show that it is possible to control image parameters as focus distance, image size, and image resolution. Those explored potentialities open further the novel prospective of application of digital holography in single- and multiwavelengths operation either for display or metrological applications. We demonstrate the concept of controlling parameters in image reconstruction of digital holograms in some real situations for inspecting silicon microelectronicmechanical systems structures. Index TermsHolographic interferometry, holography, metrology, microelectromechanical devices, microscopy.

I. INTRODUCTION

ECENT developments in solid-state image sensors and digital computers have made it possible to directly record holograms by charge coupled device (CCD) cameras and numerical reconstruction of the object wave front by computer. The idea of using a computer for reconstructing a hologram was proposed for the rst time by Goodman and Laurence [1] and by Kronrod et al. [2]. This technique as well as the limitations imposed by the low spatial resolution of the CCD camera array compared to that of photographic material has been widely discussed and various congurations of digital holography (DH) have been proposed and applied in various elds of applications [3][6]. DH has been applied for deformation analysis, object contouring [7][10], measurement of particle position [11][15], investigation of large objects for contouring and comparative analysis, for three-dimensional image formation, and for measuring distribution of complex amplitude for application to microscopy [16][21]. Two methods are usually adopted to reconstruct digital holograms called Fresnel transformation method (FTM) and the Convolution method (CM) [5], [6] even if new methods have been developed [22]. In FTM, the reconstruction pixel increases with the reconstruction distance so that the size of image, in terms of number of pixels, is reduced for longer distances, limiting the resolution
Manuscript received January 6, 2004; revised June 8, 2004. The authors are with the National Research Council (CNR), Naples 80131, Italy (e-mail: giuseppe.coppola@imm.cnr.it). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/JSTQE.2004.833876

of amplitude and phase reconstruction. In CM, by contrast, the reconstruction pixel does not change and remains equal to the pixel size of the recording array. However, the CM is more appropriate for reconstruction at small distances, whereas the FTM is useful for longer distances according to the paraxial approximation necessary to apply it. This last reconstruction method is particularly indicated for microscopic metrological applications such as, for example, in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inspection and/or characterization [23]. In fact, DH has been demonstrated to be a useful tool for inspecting microcomponents and microstructures [24][31]. Recently, for metrological applications multiwavelength DH has been employed [32], [33], even if a substantial limitation occurs when FTM reconstruction is adopted. In fact, the holograms recorded with different wavelengths produce reconstructed images of different size and resolution hindering a direct superimposition [32][35]. Here, we propose different approaches to adopt in the reconstruction process of digital holograms. The proposed methods add much more exibility for DH. Through the proposed methods different parameters involved in the reconstruction images, such as correct focusing, image size, and image resolution, can be simultaneously controlled. The possibility to control such parameters is useful for some typical cases of application of DH in microscopy and multiwavelength operations overcoming the above outlined limitations. In Section II, principles of operation of DH will be described. In Section III, by carefully managing the reconstruction process it is possible to track in real-time focus change due to the movements of the sample during the inspection. In Section IV, we will demonstrate how it is possible to control image size in the reconstruction image plane independently from the recording distance and wavelength. In that way, it is possible to apply holographic interferometry between two holograms of the same object even if they are recorded at different distances. In the same way, the multiwavelength DH is applicable with perfect superimposing for color application of DH or deformation analysis. Finally, in Section V, we will demonstrate a way to control image resolution by changing the reconstruction pixel size for recovering undersampled wrapped phase obtaining the correct prole of highly curved MEMS structure.

II. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION OF DH In holography, an object is illuminated by a collimated, monochromatic, coherent light with a wavelength . The object

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scatters the incoming light forming a complex waveeld (the object beam) (1) is the amplitude and the phase and and dewhere note the Cartesian coordinates in the plane where the waveeld incorporates is recorded (hologram plane). The phase information about the topographic prole of the MEMS under investigation because it is related to the optical path difference (OPD) OPD (2)

where a reection conguration has been considered. The purpose of holography is to capture the complete wavefront, in particular the phase , and reconstructs this wavefront in order to obtain a quantitative information about the topographic prole of the object. Since all light-sensitive sensors respond to intensity only, the phase is encoded in the intensity fringe pattern adding another coherent background wave , called the reference beam. Both waves interfere at the surface of the recording device. The intensity of this interference pattern is calculated by

Fig. 1. Experimental setup for recording digital holograms; BS is beam splitter, M is mirror, MO is microscope objective, and BE is beam expander.

compensated as well as other types of aberrations like spherical type, astigmatism, and anamorphism, or even longitudinal image shifting introduced by the cube beam splitter [36][42]. In particular, by means of the FTM the reconstructed image is obtained by

(3) where denotes the conjugate complex. The hologram is proportional to this intensity, . In the reconstruction process, the hologram can be seen like an amplitude transmittance that diffracts the reference wave. In other words, the wavefront scattered by the object under investigation is obtained through the propagation of from the holographic plane to the the product image plane evaluate by means of the Fresnel approximation of the RayleighSommerfelds diffraction integral [4]. Generally, in DH the recording device is a CCD camera array; pixels, with it is a two-dimensional rectangular raster of and in the two directions. Thus, hologram pixel pitches patters recorded by a CCD are nothing less than digitized version of the waveelds that impinge on the CCD surface. Thereand are the sampling intervals in the observation fore, plane, and they dene the resolution of the reconstructed images. DH is spatially sampled and stored as a numerical array in a computer and, in the reconstruction process, the recorded intensity distribution of the hologram is numerically multiplied by the reference wave eld in the hologram plane. Then, in order to evaluate the intensity and the phase distribution of the reconstructed real image, the diffracted eld in the image plane is determined by a discretization of the integral of diffraction. Thus, the numerical reconstruction of the complex wave eld allows not only intensity but also the phase of the reconstructed wave front. The possibility to manage the phase in DH is very attractive because aberrations can be removed. In fact, it has been proved that a wave front curvature introduced by microscope objective and lenses can be successfully removed and/or FFT (4)

denotes the fast Fourier transform algorithm. where FFT Thus, the reconstructed image is an matrix with elements ( , ) and steps (5) along the two transversal directions. Fig. 1 shows the experimental recording holographic setup. The laser source wavelength is nm. The reference and object beams are plane wave fronts obtained by a beam expander (BE). The rst beam splitter is a cube polarizing beam splitter wave plate is in the reference beam to obtain (BS) and a equal polarization directions for the two beams. In order to avoid the problem of twin image and eliminate the zeroth diffraction order, an off-axis conguration has been employed [43]. In the off-axis geometry, the mirror which reects the reference wave is oriented such that the reected wave reaches the CCD camera array plane with a small incidence angle with respect to the object wave, which propagates perpendicular to the hologram plane . The microscope objective is an aspheric lens. Different aspheric lenses are available with focal lengths and numerical apertures, respectively, of mm and ; mm and ; mm, . The lenses are microscope objective equivalents, respectively, to 35X, 20X, and 10X. The CCD detector is a 1280 1024 pixel array with pixel size m.

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Fig. 2.

Intensity of the signal recorded on a group of 4

2 4 pixels and related to the phase-shift of the fringes.

of the reconstruction distance can be obtained and in-focus amplitude and phase-contrast images, for each recorded hologram, can be reconstructed. The method effectiveness has been demonstrated in a quasi-real-time inspection of silicon MEMS structures while their temperature is changed. Two different types of silicon MEMS structures having out-of-plane deformation due to the residual stress induced by the microfabrication process have been investigated [29]: a cantilever 50 50 m and bridges 10 m wide. The silicon wafer was mounted on a metal plate and was held by a vacuum chuck system. The metal plate was mounted (see Fig. 1) on a translation stage in proximity of an mm and . The MO with focal length to 120 C, by a remote-consample was heated from 23 trolled heating element. An axial displacement due to the overall thermal expansion of the metallic plate and the translation stage was observed. So, a rst hologram was recorded before raising the temperature. The numerical reconstruction for a well-focused image was found at an initial distance of . While heating the 100 mm with a magnication sample, the phase shift of the fringes in quasi-real time was detected by measuring the average intensity change in a group of 4 4 pixels. Fig. 2 shows the recorded intensity signal. The signal had 3149 points sampled at a rate of 12.5 points/s. At each ten points, a hologram was recorded, obtaining a sequence of 314 holograms. The signal of Fig. 2 was analyzed by applying an FFT algorithm; so, for each added point recorded, the wrapped phase was detected and the unwrapped phase was was calculated considering calculated. The displacement as both (6) and (7). Fig. 3 shows the calculated displacement function of the sampled point. In this way, the numerical reconstruction distance for each hologram was continuously updated and, as shown in Fig. 3, the nal hologram reconstruction distance differs from the initial one by about 40 mm. Fig. 4(a)(c) shows the amplitude and phase-contrast reconstructions for the cantilever beam obtained reconstructing three different holograms of the recorded sequence of 314 holograms; i.e., the holograms no. 1, no. 196, and no. 314, relative to three different temperatures. The reconstructions were performed automatically by applying the focus tracking procedure. Fig. 4(a) shows the mm; Fig. 4(b) reconstruction of the hologram no. 1 at mm, while shows that of the hologram no. 196 at mm. Fig. 4(c) shows that of the hologram no. 314 at

III. FOCUS TRACKING The possibility to have an experimental setup with different microscope objectives allows us to obtain magnied images of the sample object. However, since in DH an imaging short focal system is required, if the sample experiences even very small displacements along the optical axis, a large change occurs in the distance to the imaging plane and consequently the focus can be lost. In fact, if is the distance from the lens to the object, is the distance of the image plane from the lens, and is the focal of the sample results in length, then any axial displacement a shift of the phase detected at time given by (6) and in a translation of the imaging plane in front of the CCD given by (7) where is magnication of the imaging system. In this case, the distance used in the numerical reconstruction process must be changed to get an in-focus amplitude and/or phase-contrast image. Any small axial displacement, even in the micrometric range, displaces the image plane and the focus can be lost. The effect of defocus inuences the phase-contrast reconstruction, thereby affecting the quantitative information. Thus, the distance used in the numerical reconstruction process must be changed to get an in-focus amplitude or phase-contrast image. However, the tedious and cumbersome search for new focal planes becomes intolerable, especially if there is a need to visualize the phenomena in anything approximating real time. Displacement of the object may occur for different reasons. One unavoidable situation is encountered in case of thermal characterization of objects. Naturally, temperature changes cause thermal expansion of the object and/or its mechanical support that may not be predictable. In order to overcome this problem, it is possible to detect the axial displacement of the object by measuring the phase shift of the hologram fringes [30]. In fact, with reference to the conguration reported in Fig. 1, any axial displacement of the object caused a shift in the fringe pattern of the hologram. By recording the phase shift in a small at portion of the object, it is possible to determine the displacement. In this way, the incremental change

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Fig. 3.

Displacement of the sample measured in quasi-real time by analyzing the phase shift of hologram fringes.

Fig. 5. Wrapped and unwrapped phase-contrast reconstruction for a bridge structure: (a) and (b) applying the focus-tracking procedure and (c) and (d) without focus tracking.

Fig. 4. In-focus amplitude and phase map for the cantilever beam reconstructed from three holograms of the record sequence and obtained applying the focus-tracking procedure.

The presence of fringes in the phase-map image of the wrapped phase observed on the cantilever indicates it had an intrinsic out-of-plane deformation. As expected, the reconstructions in Fig. 4 are all in focus, even though the size of the reconstructed object decreases from Fig. 4(a) to (c) because of the increasing of the reconstruction distance. In Fig. 5 is reported a different MEMS structure with a bridge

shape and with smaller dimensions. Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows the phase, wrapped and unwrapped, respectively, applying the focus-tracking procedure; whereas in Fig. 5(c) and (d) the same quantities obtained without focus tracking are reported. Fig. 5 shows that the effect of defocus inuences the phasecontrast reconstruction, thereby affecting the quantitative information. In particular, it is clearly visible that the edges of the bridge are blurred when the focus tracking method is not applied. Thus, applying the proposed method, the corrected reconstruction distance can be evaluated for each acquired hologram and well-focused amplitude and phase-contrast images can be obtained. IV. CONTROLLING IMAGE SIZE In Section III, it can be noted that in Fig. 4(a)(c) the size of the reconstructed object decreases because of the increasing of

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the larger reconstruction distance. Therefore, although well-focused images were obtained, it was not possible to compare two of them directly since they had different sizes due to the different width of the reconstruction pixel (RP). From (5), we note that RP increases with the reconstruction distance so that the size of the image, in terms of number of pixels, is reduced for longer distances. On the other hand, direct subtraction of unwrapped phase maps from two holograms at two different distances is important [15] in order to obtain quantitative information, e.g., on the deformations caused by the thermal load. Similar difculties arise in multiwavelength DH (MWDH) used for color display and for applications in metrology. In MWDH, for each wavelength the width of the RP increases with the reconstruction wavelength for a xed reconstruction distance. Consequently, holograms recorded with different wavelengths produce images with different sizes, when numerically reconstructed by means of the FTM. A color DH display requires simultaneous reconstruction of images recorded with different wavelengths (colors) and the resulting reconstructed images must be perfectly superimposed to get a correct color display [34], [35]. This is prevented by the differing image sizes, and this also prevents phase comparison required for holographic interferometry [32], [33]. To avoid the above problems, we have developed a simple method for controlling the image size of the reconstructed images generated by the FTM so that two images of the same object recorded at two different distances and/or wavelength can be directly compared. The method is intrinsically embedded in the holographic reconstruction process without the need of image scaling at the end of the process. The size is controlled through ctitious enlargement of the number of the pixels of the recorded digital holograms. From (5), it is clear that the reconstructed image is enlarged or contracted according to the reconstruction distance and/or the reconstruction wavelength and that the size of the RP depends from the lateral number of the pixels and . Our method for controlling image size is based on the RP changing by using a larger number of pixels in the reand can be augmented by construction process. In fact, padding the matrix of the hologram with zeros in both the horizontal and vertical directions such that

Fig. 6. In-focus phase map for the cantilever beam relative to three different reconstruction distances.

Fig. 7. Wrapped image phases reconstructed at different distances with application of padding operation.

second with , where , at the same distance, then the number of pixels of that hologram may be changed such that

(10) in order to obtain the same width for the RP

(8) giving

(11) where, now, and are the number of pixels of the hologram recorded at the smaller wavelength . The controlling size procedure was applied on the cantilever reconstructions reposted in Section II. In particular, in Fig. 6, the three reconstructed phases of Fig. 4 are reported in a different way. In this way, it is very clear that the size of the cantilever, in terms of pixels, is reduced due to the three holograms being recorded and reconstructed at different distances. The same reconstructions, after the padding procedure has been applied to the holograms, are shown in Fig. 7. In particular, the holograms

(9) where and are the number of pixels of the hologram recorded at the nearer distance . In a similar way, in MWDH, if one hologram has been recorded with wavelength and a

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Fig. 8. Unwrapped phase of a cantilever at distance (a) d = 115:5 mm, (b) d = 139:5 mm, and (c) d = 139:5 mm with the padding operation. (d) Phase map subtraction between (a) and (c).

reconstructed at distance mm had 512 512 pixels; the holograms at mm and mm have been padded, according the (8), with zeros up to 614 614 pixels and 718 718 pixels, respectively. From Fig. 7, it can be noted that the reconstructed phase images maintain the same size independent of distance. Thus, on these reconstructed images, direct phase subtraction can be performed and possible differences can be emphasized. An example of direct phase subtraction is reported in Fig. 8. In Fig. 8(a) is reported the unwrapped phase image of the hologram recorded at distance mm; Fig. 8(b) shows the unwrapped phase image of the MEMS at mm without zero padding; whereas, Fig. 8(c) shows the unwrapped phase of the MEMS at obtained by the padding operation. Thus, phase subtraction between the phase maps of Fig. 8(a) and (c) can be performed. In Fig. 8(d), we show the difference between the unwrapped phase maps with equal size indicating the small deformation caused by thermal load. An example of amplitude reconstruction size control is reported in Fig. 9. Fig. 9(a) shows portion of the reconstruction along the longitudinal axis ( axis) for a Ronchi grating [44] without the padding operation; as expected, the period of the grating decreases. Fig. 9(b) shows the results of the same reconstruction when the padding operation applied. It is clear that the size of the grating is kept constant. The Talbot effect is noticeable along the axis. The initial distance of reconstruction was mm, while the nal mm with steps of 10 mm and a total number of 40 reconstructed holograms. The initial number of pixels for the rst reconstruction was ; whereas, the nal reconstruction was performed with padding of zeros up to pixels. In Fig. 9(a) and (b), a common number of pixels was extracted from reconstructed images in order to prove the usefulness of the controlling size procedure.

Fig. 9. Ronchi grating reconstructed at different distances: (a) pitch of the grating decreases for longer distances and (b) size is kept unchanged with padding operation.

In order to demonstrate that size can be controlled in MWDH applications, we recorded holograms with two different wavenm and nm, respectively. lengths at The test object was a double Ronchi grating with periods of 5.0 and 3.5 lines/mm, respectively. All holograms were initially pixels. Fig. 10(a) and (b) recorded with shows the reconstructed amplitude of the grating at , respectively, without and with padding operation applied to the hologram. Fig. 10(c) shows the amplitude image reconstruction at (green). The red hologram (that at ) was reconstructed [Fig. 10(b)], according to (10), adds a number of zeros around to obtain an image the hologram such that having equal size in respect to that of Fig. 10(c). RGB combination of the red and green images gives perfect superimposition and new color (yellow) in Fig. 10(d). From these examples, it is clear that by means of a simple padding of the recorded digital holograms with zeros, it is possible to control the size of the reconstructed images independent of distance and wavelength. V. CONTROLLING RESOLUTION The possibility to manage the RP by varying the number of pixels of the hologram appears important not only for

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Fig. 10. MWDH reconstruction of the red hologram (a) without padding and (b) with padding. (c) Reconstruction of the green hologram and (d) superimposition of red and green images (b) and (c).

controlling the size of the reconstructed images, but for enhancing the resolution of this image too. In fact, in FTM, the spatial frequencies displayable in reconstructed images are band limited by the size of the reconstruction pixel, which represents the sampling gauge in the image plane so that spatial frequencies higher then the Nyquist limit are undersampled and reconstructed incorrectly. Depending on the objects, undersampling can affect the correctness of reconstructed phase map. In order to recover the necessary resolution in reconstructed images that has been lost intrinsically by the application of the FTM, we have developed an approach analogous to that of the size controlling. From (5), it is clear that reconstruction pixel and, consequently, resolution depend on the wavelength, the of the sensor array and distance, number of the pixels , their physical size, and the reconstructed image has a reduced spatial lateral resolution for higher reconstruction distances. Thus, the resolution can be easily improved through articial enlargement of the number of the pixels in recorded digital holograms. To demonstrate the method effectiveness, the silicon-based membrane reported in Fig. 11 has been investigated. In silicon MEMS inspection, undersampling can occur if the shape of the MEMS structure grows too rapidly for a xed distance, wavelength, number and size of pixels of the CCD, and as consequence the resulting prole can be incorrectly reconstructed. Fig. 12(a) shows the phase map reconstructed obtained at a dismm and nm from the recorded hologram tance consisting of pixels; thus, the correm. sponding reconstruction pixel size is The plot of the unwrapped phase along the diagonal direction of the membrane is shown superimposed in Fig. 12(a).

Fig. 11.

SEM picture of a MEMS structure deformed by residual stress.

Although this plot is consistent with the expected deformation qualitatively shown in Fig. 11, some small undersampling occurs at the extremity of the corner. The unwrapped phase given by prole can be modeled by a parabolic function (12) where is the cantilever initial slope and depends on internal is its radius of curvature. stresses of the structure, and implies that The parabolic increasing of the phase change corresponding to the reconstructhe small phase increment tion pixel size is (13) Proper sampling of the phase distribution on the reconstruction image plane is obtained when the minimum phase increment that can be resolved is less than , i.e.,

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, along which proper sampling of the phase can be obtained, namely (14) Considering the (5) for the RP, the maximum distance along the direction of the deected MEMS can be written in terms of the CCD pixel size by (15) showing that, for a xed reconstruction distance and recording , increasing the sampling number through the pixel size padding operation increases the maximum range . Thus, in Fig. 12(a) the prole is correctly retrieved up to a certain value, according to (15). We can assume safely that the prole up to this value is the actual true prole of the membrane along that line. By tting the unwrapped phase shown in Fig. 12(a), with a parabolic law along the direction, the tted values of cm and of the cantilever slope the radius of curvature rad can be estimated. From (15), a value of m for the maximum range can readily obtained. Thus, the maximum value corresponding to correctly sampled radians. It can phase is be veried from Fig. 12(a) that this value is in agreement with the maximum range that can be estimated from the unwrapped phase data shown. 512 pixels Then, we extracted a subhologram of 512 from the center of the original hologram recorded with 1024 1024 pixels. From this subhologram the phase map reported in Fig. 12(b) is reconstructed employing the same reconstruction distance utilized for the reconstruction of Fig. 12(a). From the phase map it can be seen that the Nyquist limit was strongly exceeded and undersampling occurred in the wrapped phase map as evidenced by the appearance of the circular fringe on the tip of the membrane corner. The plot along the diagonal line of the unwrapped phase demonstrates that the undersampling gives an incorrect prole of the MEMS meaning that the phase has been incorrectly retrieved. By using the previously determined , values of and , (15) predicts in this case ( m) that the maximum linear range along i.e., which a phase unwrapping procedure could work properly is m and the corresponding maximum value of the rad. This value is in good agreement phase is with the data shown in Fig. 12(b). In order to recover, the lost resolution of the same hologram used in Fig. 12(b) has been padded with zeros up to 1024 1024 pixels. The reconstructed phase map is shown in Fig. 12(c). It can be seen that the resolution has been recovered giving the correct prole of the structure. In fact, in this case, the phase prole of the membrane has been retrieved correctly up to the same value of the original 1024 1024 pixel hologram. Finally, to obtain the complete correct prole of the membrane, the 1024 1024 pixels hologram has been padded with zeros up to 2048 2048 pixels, and the resulting phase map is shown in Fig. 13(a). In Fig. 13(b), we show the same 512 512 hologram but padded to 2048 2048 pixels. From the plot of the

Fig. 12. Wrapped phase maps of the MEMS: (a) from the original hologram with 1024 1024 pixels, (b) from a selected central portion of 512 512 pixels, and (c) from the previous hologram with 512 512 pixel but padded with zeros up to 1024 1024 pixels.

2 2

(Nyquist criterion). According to (13), this condition leads straightforwardly to the estimate of the maximum distance

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remains unaffected as it depends on the real aperture of the optical system, while the padding operation allows only a ctitious enlargement of the aperture of the digital hologram. VI. CONCLUSION In this paper, we have shown how different parameters can be simultaneously controlled in reconstructing digital holograms. The exibility offered by the proposed approaches in the reconstruction process of DH allows exploitation of new possibilities of application in microscopy. Through the reconstruction process we show that it is possible to control image parameters as focus distance, image size, and image resolution. These newly explored potentialities open further a novel prospective of application of DH in single- and multiwavelengths operation either for display or metrological applications. Specically, we demonstrated a method for tracking focus during the recording of a sequence of holograms. In this way, a corrected reconstruction distance, for each acquired hologram and well-focused amplitude and phase-contrast image, can be obtained controlling the correct focus. The method can even be applied as a quasi-real-time procedure and it could constitute a signicant step forward in the implementation of a DH microscope for quas-ireal-time observation in many elds of application. Furthermore, we have shown that by means of a simple padding of the recorded digital holograms with zeros, it is possible to control the size of the reconstructed images independent of distance and wavelength. By this controlling operation the problem of the superimposition in MWDH applications has been solved without the need for subsequent resizing of images. In metrological applications it is possible by the proposed method to subtract directly reconstructed phase maps of the same object to detect small deformations in different holograms recorded and reconstructed at different distances. Finally, we have demonstrated that by controlling the reconstruction pixel, in a real situation it is possible to recover the necessary resolution for correct reconstruction of phase and/or amplitude images by FTM in DH. The method allows correct prole reconstruction of highly curved MEMS in which the wrapped phase map is beyond the Nyquist limit. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank Dr. C. Magro of STMicroelectronics, Catania, Italy, for useful discussions about silicon MEMS structures. REFERENCES
[1] J. W. Goodman and R. W. Lawrence, Digital image formation from electronically detected holograms, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 7779, 1967. [2] R. W. Kronrod, N. S. Merzlyakov, and L. P. Yaroslavskii, Reconstruction of a hologram with a computer, Sov. Phys.Tech. Phys., vol. 17, pp. 333334, 1972. [3] U. Schnars, Direct phase determination in hologram interferometry with use of digitally recorded holograms, J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A, vol. 11, pp. 20112015, 1994. [4] U. Schnars and W. Juptner, Direct recording of holograms by a CCD target and numerical reconstruction, Appl. Opt., vol. 33, pp. 179181, 1994. [5] T. M. Kreis and W. Jptner, Principles of Digital Holography, W. Jptner and W. Osten, Eds. Berlin, Gemany: Academic Verlag, 1997, pp. 253363.

Fig. 13. Close-up of the wrapped phase map of: (a) hologram of Fig. 11(a) but padded to 2048 2048 pixels and (b) hologram of Fig. 11(c) but padded to 2048 2048 pixels.

unwrapped phase along the central line of the MEMS in Fig. 13, it is clear that the padding operation allows the recovery of the correct phase map in both cases. In fact, in this case, according to (15), no undersampling should occur up to the maximum phase value of about 410 rad that is higher that the maximum height of the membrane. It is important to note that real content of information in Fig. 13(b) is exactly the same as that producing the phase map of Fig. 12(b) with only a padding operation making the difference. Nevertheless, the prole of the MEMS is almost completely correctly recovered in case of Fig. 13(a). That means the required information about phase map can be extracted even from a reduced hologram. This can have an impact on compression of digital holograms without loss of information in analogy to which is proposed in [45]. Thus, with the proposed method, it is possible to recover the necessary resolution for correct reconstruction of phase and/or amplitude images by FTM in DH. Finally, it is important to point out that even if the resolution can be improved by zero padding on the digital hologram the corresponding eld of view

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Pietro Ferraro (M97) received the B.S. degree in physics from Naples University Federico II, Italy. From 1988 to 1993, he was a Researcher with Alenia Aeronautics in the eld of optical methods for nondestructive testing (NDT) of aerospace composite structures including holographic interferometry and ber-optic sensors based on ber Bragg gratings (FBGs). He was a Physics and Optics Teacher in 1993 while being an Associate Researcher with the Institute of Cybernetics E. Caianiello of the National Council of Research (CNR), Italy. He is currently a Researcher with the National Institute of Optics, Naples, Italy. His current research interests include developing optical methods (digital holography, interferometry) for characterization of materials, components, and FBG sensors for strain measurements.

Giuseppe Coppola received the M.Sc degree in electronic engineering and the Ph. D. degree in electronics and computer science in 1997 and 2001, respectively, both from the University of Napoli Federico II, Italy. In 2001, he spent six months as Visiting Scientist at Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submicron Technologies, Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands, working on the design and realization of an optoelectronic modulator. Since 2002, he has been a Researcher at the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems (IMM) of the National Research Council (CNR), in Naples. His research interests include the design and characterization of silicon-based optoelectronics devices and characterization of MEMS structures by digital holography.

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Domenico Aleri received the M.Sc. degree in telecommunication engineering from the University of Naples, Federico II, Naples, Italy, in 2002. He is currently a Researcher with the National Institute of Optics, Naples. His research interests include developing optical methods for monitoring and diagnostic noninvasive fMEMS and for characterization of materials by means of digital holography.

Andrea Finizio has been with the Optical Department, the Institute of Cybernetics E. Caianiello of the National Council of Research (CNR), Italy, managing the experimental activity of the optical laboratories since 1968. He has senior knowledge of laboratory techniques and the design systems for classical and digital holography and interferometry applied to nondestructive testing (NDT) and optical testing. He is a coauthor of about 65 papers in international journals and conferences.

Sergio De Nicola received the B.S. degree in physics from Naples University Federico II, Naples, Italy, in 1982. From 1983 to 1987, he was a Systems Analyst with Elettronica SpA, Rome, Italy, and at Alenia SpA, Naples. Since 1988, he has been on the staff of the Institute of Cybernetics E. Caianiello of the National Council of Research, Italy, where he is currently a Senior Researcher. He has contributed to about 130 papers in international journals and conferences. His research interests include the development and applications of interferometric and holographic techniques for nondestructive materials evaluation, wavefront analysis, numerical modeling of laser beam propogation in heterogeneous media, nonlinear optics, and quantum-like models for beam propogation analysis.

Giovanni Pierattini received the degree in physics from Naples University Federico II, Naples, Italy, in 1968. Since 1969, he has been a Researcher with the Institute of Cybernetics E. Caianiello of the National Council of Research, Naples, where he leads the Optical Department. Since 1970, he has worked for the noninvasive diagnostics of biological samples of artworks through holography. His activities have basically concerned the eld of modern optics and he has been involved in many research projects. His current interests are in nonlinear optics, interferometry, and holography. He is the author or coauthor of about 120 papers in international journals. He has led two patent applications. Mr. Pierattini has been a member of the Scientic Council of the National Group of Quantum Electronics and Plasma (GNEQP), since 1997.