Talbot array illuminators: general approach

Abstract

I present a general approach for designing Talbot array illuminators (TAIL's). Beyond the scope of conventional TAIL's, in which each period of the replay field contains only one bright spot, I examine complex configurations ensuring various topologies of the output spots. The synthesis problem is stated in terms of constraints and degrees of freedom. Both the one-dimensional and two-dimensional cases are treated, and an example of constraints, namely the binarization of the TAIL, is discussed. For illustration, an application is proposed in which I consider a dynamic multilayer interconnection architecture involving a programmable TAIL.