Optical apparatus and three-dimensional modeling apparatus
AssigneeSCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
InventorHirofumi Mizuno
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An illumination optical system is configured to convert an intensity distribution of incident light in a long axis direction from a Gaussian distribution, to thereby bring an intensity distribution of a shaped beam on a modulation surface of an optical modulator in the long axis direction into a top hat distribution, and to guide the incident light to the optical modulator as parallel light in the long axis direction and as convergent light in the short axis direction. A short axis side light shielding part is disposed at a condensing position on a short axis side of a modulated beam which is emitted from the optical modulator and is convergent light on a short axis side and blocks a non-zero-order diffracted beam on the short axis side of the modulated beam.
Claims10
An optical apparatus for emitting a modulated beam onto a target object, comprising:
- an illumination optical system for shaping a laser beam into a shaped beam which is long in a long axis direction;
- an optical modulator for modulating said shaped beam into a modulated beam;
- and
- a projection optical system for guiding said modulated beam onto an irradiated surface of a target object,
- wherein said illumination optical system comprises:
- a beam shaper;
- and
- an illumination optical element,
- said illumination optical system is configured to convert an intensity distribution of incident light in said long axis direction from a Gaussian distribution, to thereby bring an intensity distribution of said shaped beam on a modulation surface of said optical modulator in said long axis direction into a top hat distribution, and to guide said incident light to said optical modulator as parallel light in said long axis direction and as convergent light in said short axis direction,
- said optical modulator comprises a plurality of modulation elements which are two-dimensionally arranged, and performs modulation in said long axis direction and dose not perform modulation in said short axis direction,
- said projection optical system comprises:
- a short axis side light shielding part disposed at a condensing position on a short axis side of said modulated beam which is emitted from said optical modulator and is convergent light on a short axis side, for blocking a non-zero-order diffracted beam on said short axis side of said modulated beam;
- a first projection optical element for converging said modulated beam passing through said short axis side light shielding part in said long axis direction;
- a long axis side light shielding part disposed at a condensing position on a long axis side of said modulated beam from said first projection optical element, for blocking a non-zero-order diffracted beam on said long axis side of said modulated beam;
- and
- a second projection optical element for converging said modulated beam passing through said long axis side light shielding part in said short axis direction and condensing said modulated beam on said irradiated surface, and
- said modulation surface and said irradiated surface are optically conjugated with respect to said long axis direction by said projection optical system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.