Exposure device and method for compensating optical defects
AssigneeBasys Print Systeme fuer die Druckindustrie
InventorFriedrich Luellau
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Abstract
An exposure device for exposing a projection of an electronically stored artwork pattern onto a substrate, in particular a printing plate 1, with image processing electronics (2) that can store the image data, with a light modulator (7) that can be electronically controlled by the image processing electronics (2), in particular an LCD display (7) or a micro-mirror device, with an illuminating device (8, 9) for illuminating the light modulator (7), and with a projection lens (11) for projecting the light modulator (7) onto the substrate (1), is improved according to the invention in that the image processing electronics (2) include a compensation device (4, 5) to compensate for optical defects and/or tolerances in the beam path of the exposure device.
Claims9
An exposure device for exposing a projection of an electronically stored artwork pattern onto a substrate, in particular a printing plate (1), with image processing electronics (2) that can store the image data, with a light modulator (7) that can be electronically controlled by the image processing electronics (2), in particular an LCD display (7) or a micro-mirror device, with an illuminating device (8, 9) for illuminating the light modulator (7) and with a projection lens for projecting the light modulator (7) onto the substrate (1), characterized in that the image processing electronics (2) include a compensation device (4, 5) to compensate for optical defects and/or tolerances in the beam path of the exposure device.
The exposure device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that during the exposure process, a locus-dependent intensity modulation of the stored artwork pattern can be provided with an electronically stored gray mask.
The exposure device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that in order to achieve a locus-dependent light modulation, the ON times of individual pixels of the light modulator (7) during the exposure process can be varied in accordance with an stored gray mask.
A method for compensating for optical defects and/or tolerances in the beam path of an exposure device, in which a projection of an artwork pattern stored in a set of image processing electronics (2) is projected onto a substrate, in particular a printing plate (1), in which a light modulator that is controlled by the image processing electronics (2), in particular an LCD display (7) or a micro-mirror device, is illuminated by means of an illuminating device (8, 9), and is projected onto the substrate (1) to be exposed by means of a projecting lens (11), characterized in that the total quantity of incident light striking any point of the substrate (1) during the exposure process is modulated in such a way that the exposure differences on the substrate to be exposed, which are due to optical defects and/or tolerances in the beam path, are compensated for.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.