High-performance light-shaper modules with acylindrical microlens arrays

Abstract

Homogeneous tophat light lines or rectangular fields are required in a number of lithography, annealing, printing, ablation or micro-machining applications. One-or two-dimensional lens arrays combined with a field lens are known to produce such light shapes in principle. However, the tight tolerances of many high-end applications cannot be met by simple fly’s eyes or cylindrical lens arrays. LIMO has a unique production technology based on computer-aided design that enables the manufacture of high-precision microlens arrays with free programmable surfaces. Thus, specific beam profiles with superior uniformity and efficiency can be generated. Compact beam shaper modules with prealigned optics have been developed. These modules simply have to be placed into the collimated input beam and the required intensity profile is generated at the target without any complicated alignment.Homogeneous tophat light lines or rectangular fields are required in a number of lithography, annealing, printing, ablation or micro-machining applications. One-or two-dimensional lens arrays combined with a field lens are known to produce such light shapes in principle. However, the tight tolerances of many high-end applications cannot be met by simple fly’s eyes or cylindrical lens arrays. LIMO has a unique production technology based on computer-aided design that enables the manufacture of high-precision microlens arrays with free programmable surfaces. Thus, specific beam profiles with superior uniformity and efficiency can be generated. Compact beam shaper modules with prealigned optics have been developed. These modules simply have to be placed into the collimated input beam and the required intensity profile is generated at the target without any complicated alignment.