There are significant differences between spectral confocal sensors and laser focusing when it comes to precision and technology selection for height measurement. These differences are mainly in their measurement principles, the accuracy they can achieve, their adaptability to different surfaces and the application scenarios for which they are suitable. These differences are summarized as follows：

1. Principles of measurement

• Spectral Confocal Sensor：Using the principle of optical dispersion, the light of different wavelengths is focused on different positions after passing through the dispersive objective lens by the complex color light emitted from a broad spectrum light source (e.g., white LED). Only the wavelength light focused on the surface of the object to be measured can pass through the detection hole and be detected by the spectrometer, thus extracting the peak wavelength and realizing the accurate measurement of the height of the object surface. This measurement method is characterized by non-contact, high precision and high stability.

• Laser Focusing：relies heavily on the emission and reception of a laser beam to calculate the height or distance of an object by measuring the time (or phase difference) from when the laser beam is emitted to when it is reflected by the object and returned to the receiver. While laser focusing technology also offers high accuracy, its measurement principle is relatively simple and may be limited in certain complex scenarios.

2. Accuracy

• Spectral Confocal Sensors: Spectral Confocal Sensors typically have higher accuracy and resolution when measuring heights due to the use of high-precision spectral analysis and confocal detection technology. Their measurement accuracy can reach the micron level or even higher, making them suitable for measurement scenarios that require extremely high precision.

• Laser focusing: Laser focusing is also relatively accurate, but is affected by a number of factors (e.g., divergence angle of the laser beam, receiver sensitivity, environmental factors, etc.) and may be slightly less accurate than spectral confocal sensors.

3. Adaptation

• Spectral Confocal Sensors: Spectral Confocal Sensors have good adaptability to the surface characteristics of the object to be measured, and can measure a variety of surfaces with different reflective characteristics, including transparent, mirror, highly reflective and other materials. This makes spectral confocal sensors more widely used in complex measurement environments.

• Laser focusing: Laser focusing can be disturbed on certain surfaces (e.g. highly reflective surfaces), resulting in a loss of measurement accuracy. In addition, laser focusing places relatively high demands on the measurement environment, such as the need to avoid vibrations, temperature variations and other disturbing factors.

4. Application scenarios

• Spectral Confocal Sensors: Due to their high accuracy, high stability and good adaptability, spectral confocal sensors are widely used in precision measurement fields, such as electronics manufacturing, semiconductor packaging and 3D printing. In these fields, spectral confocal sensors can provide accurate and reliable measurement data to support product quality control and productivity improvement.

• Laser focusing: Laser focusing is also widely used in several fields, such as machine vision and industrial automation. However, in scenarios that require extremely high precision and complex surface measurements, laser focus may not be the best choice.