A generalized multi-sensitivity temporal phase unwrapping method for absolute phase retrieval

•Proposed a novel phase unwrapping method based on 2-sensitivity temporal phase unwrapping (TPU).•Studied the maximum ratio between two wavelengths in a measurement system.•Proposed a generalized multi-sensitivity TPU to improve the capability and accuracy in the phase unwrapping process.•Validated the proposed method by simulation and experimental results.•Improved the measurement accuracy significantly using the proposed algorithm. In this paper, a noble phase unwrapping method based on 2-sensitivity temporal phase unwrapping (TPU) is proposed. The algorithm considers the maximum ratio between two wavelengths in a measurement system and deals with wrapped phase error in detail. In addition, a generalized multi-sensitivity TPU is also proposed to improve the capability and accuracy in the phase unwrapping process. Simulations and experiments are carried out to verify the validity of the proposed method. The results show that the measurement accuracy is significantly improved using the proposed algorithm.