Beam shaping and projection imaging with solid state UV Gaussian beam to form vias

A method for increasing the throughput for drilling vias in a multilayered workpiece including at least first and second layers of respective first layer and second layer materials having respective first and second ablation fluence thresholds, comprising:

• generating first Gaussian laser output having a first Gaussian energy and a substantially Gaussian irradiance profile at wavelength shorter than 400 nm;
• propagating the first Gaussian laser output along an optical path through a diffractive optical element to convert the first Gaussian laser output into a first more uniformly shaped output;
• propagating a major portion of the first uniformly shaped output through an aperture to convert the first uniformly shaped output into a first apertured shaped output having a first apertured shaped energy that is greater than 50% of the first Gaussian energy of the first Gaussian laser output;
• propagating the first apertured shaped output through one or more imaging lens components to provide first imaged shaped output;
• applying the first imaged shaped output to a target location on the workpiece to remove first layer material within the target location, the first imaged shaped output having a first energy density over a first spot area, and the first energy density being greater than the first ablation fluence threshold but less than the second ablation fluence threshold to form a via.