Align Technology, Inc.
Intraoral scanner with diagonal focal plane

Abstract:

An apparatus is described for measuring surface topography of a patient's teeth. The apparatus may include an optical probe, a light source configured to generate incident light, and focusing optics configured to focus the incident light to a focal plane external to the optical probe, wherein the focal plane is a diagonal focal plane that is non-orthogonal to a direction of propagation of the incident light. The apparatus may further include a light sensor configured to measure a characteristic of returned light generated by illuminating the patient's teeth with the incident light, and a processing unit operable to determine the surface topography of the patient's teeth based on the measured characteristic of the returned light.