The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Dec. 17, 2002

Filed:

Mar. 09, 2000
Applicant:
Inventors:

Mathew N. Rekow, Santa Cruz, CA (US);

Stephen L. Kwiatkowski, Sunnyvale, CA (US);

Assignee:

Coherent, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06K 7/10 ; G06K 7/14 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06K 7/10 ; G06K 7/14 ;
Abstract

An illumination system for projecting a line of light includes a linear array of diode lasers having a fast and a slow axis and an optical system aligned with the linear array and having different optical power in the fast and slow axes. The optical system is arranged to focus fast-axis diverging rays from the array in a fast axis focal plane of the optical system, and arranged to form slow axis diverging rays of the array into a plurality of bundles of parallel rays, one for each diode-laser, in the array. The bundles of parallel rays intersect in the fast-axis focal plane, such that light from the diode-lasers is formed into a line of light in the fast-axis focal plane. The line of light has a width in the fast axis and a length in the slow axis. The illuminator is useful as an illuminator for a linear spatial light modulator array.


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