The Agilent HP 5517B (now Keysight 5517B) is a high-performance dual-frequency helium-neon laser interferometer laser head manufactured by Keysight Technologies (formerly Agilent/Hewlett-Packard), and is a core component of precision positioning measurement systems. This product utilizes Zeeman splitting technology to generate two orthogonally polarized light beams with slightly different frequencies. It is specifically designed for VME and PC-based laser interferometer systems, enabling sub-micron and even nanometer-level high-precision measurements in fields such as machine tools, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and metrology laboratories.

Main Technical Parameters

Parameter

Specifications

Laser Type

Helium-Neon (HeNe) laser, wavelength 633 nm

Output Power

Minimum 120 µW, Maximum 1 mW

Beam Diameter

6 mm

Beam Height

79.5 ± 1.0 mm

Wavelength Stability

2 ppb within 1 hour, 20 ppb over lifetime

Warm-up Time

Approximately 90 minutes

Linear Velocity

500 mm/sec

Reference Frequency

1.9-2.4 MHz

Weight

3.4 kg

Operating Power Consumption

23 W

Warm-up Power Consumption

35 W

Power Requirements

+15V ± 0.3V 2.2A, -15V ± 0.3V 0.02A

Operating Principle and Core Features

The HP 5517B is based on the dual-frequency laser interferometry principle. It utilizes the Zeeman effect by applying an axial magnetic field of approximately 0.03 Tesla to the helium-neon laser, generating two left and right circularly polarized light beams with different frequencies. These two beams pass through a quarter-wave plate to become mutually perpendicular linearly polarized light, serving as the reference beam and measurement beam, respectively. When the measurement beam is reflected by a movable mirror, a frequency change occurs due to the Doppler effect. Interference with the reference beam generates an electrical pulse signal containing ±Δf. By analyzing these signals, physical quantities such as displacement, velocity, and angle can be accurately measured. The core advantages of this laser head include: high stability (vacuum wavelength stability of 2 ppb), high reliability (mean time between failures exceeding 50,000 hours), fast warm-up (approximately 90 minutes to reach a stable state), and easy integration (seamless integration with other Keysight laser interferometer components to build a complete measurement system).

Application Areas

The HP 5517B is widely used in:

Precision machine tool accuracy testing: Used for position accuracy verification of CNC machine tools and coordinate measuring machines, capable of measuring geometric errors such as straightness, flatness, and perpendicularity.

Semiconductor manufacturing: Achieving sub-micron displacement measurement in photolithography machines and wafer inspection equipment.

Optical component testing: Measuring the radius of curvature, flatness, and aberrations of lenses and mirrors.

Metrology laboratories: Used as a length standard to verify precision measuring components such as gratings, magnetic scales, and linear scales.

Aerospace: Verification of the surface accuracy of satellite antenna reflectors and deformation analysis of thermal barrier coatings on turbine blades.

Market Position

As an important model in the HP 5517 series, the 5517B offers enhanced frequency stability and linear speed compared to the 5517A, making it particularly suitable for applications requiring relatively low motion speed but extremely high accuracy. This series of products holds a significant position in the field of precision metrology and motion control, and has been widely used in semiconductor, optical, and precision engineering systems for decades, representing a mature and reliable solution.

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