Microlens scanner for microlithography and wide-field confocal microscopy

A printing system comprising:

• an optical projection system having an object plane, an image plane which is conjugate to the object plane, and a limiting aperture stop which is referred to as the projection aperture;
• a planar array of microlenses having respective apertures defining a microlens aperture array, wherein the aperture array is positioned at the projection system's image plane, and wherein the microlenses have respective focal points which are conjugate to the projection aperture and which define a focal point array;
• a scanning mechanism which establishes relative motion between the the microlens array and a printing surface proximate the focal point array, wherein the paths traversed by the focal points relative to the printing surface comprise a set of closely-spaced raster lines;
• an image source comprising an array of light-modulating image source elements, wherein the image source is positioned at the projection system's object plane, and wherein the projection system images each image source element onto a corresponding microlens aperture and the image source element thus controls the light level over a microspot on the printing surface, proximate the corresponding microlens focal point;
• and
• an image modulation mechanism that controls the image source as the printing surface is scanned, whereby, when a photosensitive material is positioned in the printing surface, a synthesized, high-resolution raster image is recorded on the photosensitive material.