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US 2017/0361398 A1Published application
Phased array steering for laser beam positioning systems
AssigneeElectro Scientific Industries, Inc.
InventorJan Kleinert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A laser beam positioning system of a laser-based specimen processing system produces at beam positioner stage, from a fully fiber-coupled optics phased array laser beam steering system, a steered laser input beam. System directs beam through one or more other beam positioner stages to form a processing laser beam that processes target features of a workpiece mounted on a support.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- positioning a workpiece on a support, the workpiece having a process surface that defines a process surface area;
- directing a laser beam to a beam positioning system to provide a processing laser beam for incidence at feature locations on the process surface of the workpiece, the beam positioning system including a movable stage and first and second beam positioners that cooperate with the movable stage to process workpiece features at the feature locations on the process surface of the workpiece, the first beam positioner having a first response time and operable to position the processing laser beam within a scan field region of the process surface, and the second beam positioner including a phase modulator array having a second response time and operable to phased array steer the processing beam to locations within the scan field region, the second response time being shorter than the first response time;
- and
- coordinating operation of the movable stage, the first beam positioner, and the
- second beam positioner to position the processing laser beam within the scan field region and move the scan field region to cover the process surface.
2 more elements
An apparatus for phased array modulation of a laser beam, comprising:
- a seed laser source configured to generate a beam of laser pulses;
- a splitter configured to split the laser beam pulses into a plurality of beamlets;
- a phase modulator array optically coupled to the splitter and operative to produce phase differences between the beamlets;
- phase modulation electronics operably coupled to the phase modulator and configured to control an operation of the phase modulator array;
- a seed laser output power modulator operably coupled to the seed laser source, the seed laser output power modulator configured to modulate the output power of the seed laser source;
- a multicore photonic crystal fiber amplifier, the multicore photonic crystal fiber amplifier configured to amplify the beamlets output by the phase modulator array, thereby producing an amplified laser beam at an output thereof;
- a waveguide optically coupled between an output of the phase modulator array and an input of the multicore photonic crystal fiber amplifier,
- in which a beam path of the apparatus for phased array modulation of a laser beam is fully fiber-spliced, and
- in which the phase modulation electronics is operative to control an operation of the phase modulator array to steer the amplified laser beam and the seed laser output power modulator is configured to modulate, in synchrony with the phase modulation electronics, the seed laser output power according to the amount of deflection imparted by the phase modulator array, to compensate for a variation in beam efficiency caused by the deflection.
6 more elements
A method for phased array modulation of a laser beam, comprising:
- generating a beam of laser pulses using a seed laser source;
- splitting the beam of laser pulses into a plurality of beamlets;
- producing, within a phase modulator array, phase differences between the beamlets;
- amplifying, within a multicore photonic crystal fiber, the beamlets output by the phase modulator, thereby producing an amplified laser beam, wherein producing phase differences between the beamlets comprises controlling an operation of the phase modulator array to steer the amplified laser beam;
- and
- modulating, in synchrony with the operation of the phase modulator array, an output power of the seed laser source according to the amount of deflection imparted by the phase modulator array, to compensate for a variation in beam efficiency caused by the deflection.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.