Illumination Apparatus Optimized for Synthetic Aperture Optics Imaging Using Minimum Selective Excitation Patterns

A method for performing synthetic aperture optics (SAO) on a target including one or more objects, the method comprising the steps of:

• illuminating the target with a predetermined number (N) of selective excitation patterns generated by a plurality of interference pattern generation modules (IPGMs), each IPGM configured to generate a pair of light beams that interfere to generate a selective excitation pattern illuminating the target at a predetermined orientation and a predetermined pitch, each IPGM further configured to generate a plurality of phases of the selective excitation pattern, wherein illuminating the target further comprises, for each IPGM:
• splitting a first laser beam with a beam splitter into the pair of laser beams including a second laser beam and a third laser beam;
• and
• modulating an optical path length of the third laser beam with a rotating window such that the second laser beam and the modulated third laser beam interfere to generate the selective excitation pattern on the target, and wherein the plurality of phases of the selective excitation pattern of the IPGM is generated by adjusting the optical path length of the third laser beam;
• and
• optically imaging the illuminated target at a first resolution, wherein the optical imaging is from illuminating the target with the plurality of phases of the selective excitation pattern from each of the plurality of IPGMs;
• and
• processing optical images of the illuminated target using information on the selective excitation patterns to obtain a final image of the illuminated target at a second resolution higher than the first resolution.