Applications of super-resolution imaging in the field of surface topography measurement Richard Leach, Ben Sherlock Engineering Measurement Division National Physical Laboratory, Teddington Middlesex TW11 0LW, UK Abstract A large range of high-value manufactured parts require structures to be produced over large areas (metres squared) at high resolution (micrometres and smaller). Such manufacturing puts demands on the metrology that is required to assure product quality. High-speed, in-line metrology solutions are required to operate over large ranges with high resolution. In this review, the use of optical super-resolution techniques to enhance the dynamic range of surface topography measuring instruments to allow them to be used in high dynamic range manufacturing scenarios will be highlighted. A brief discussion of optical super-resolution will be given, followed by a presentation of applications that may be able to benefit from optical super-resolution techniques, from the fields of microelectronics, structured surfaces and roll-to-roll manufacturing. 1. Introduction and scope A clear trend in modern advanced manufacturing is towards high levels of parallelisation. Many structures are being produced over large areas (up to several metres squared) but with very high feature resolutions (down to micrometres and smallerǼ. This form of ȃweb-basedȄ or ȃroll-to-rollȄ manufacturing presents a number of metrology challenges, for example, the measurement of tiny defects during the manufacture of flat sheets of glass or the measurement of deviations from nominal size in laser machined lines for plastic electronics. The following is a list of a small number of product examples: modern projectors, plastic photovoltaic sheets, high-quality paper and packaging, touch-screen devices, back-lighters, vehicle head- up displays, displays and high density interconnect electronics. Vision-based metrology solutions go some way to addressing the quality control issues with high dynamic range manufacturing, but what is required is the ability to measure three- dimensional (3D) structure over areas of metres squared to very high resolution. To