Optical diffusers, photomasks and their methods of fabrication
OwnerZhijian Luinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A large mask with random apertures may be formed by forming a smaller mask (also called a cell mask) with a random pattern of transmissive apertures which is then repeatedly replicated to create the large mask. The random pattern may be created by perturbing the aperture locations by a small amount or the apertures may be randomly placed within the cell mask provided certain criteria are met. Alternatively, a large mask with a random pattern of transmissive apertures may be formed without using a cell mask. This large mask may be used to fabricate diffusers and other devices that do not suffer from the interference, diffraction and other optical effects common in devices having structures that are non-randomly patterned.
Claims34
An optical device comprising:
- a plurality of areas, each area having randomly located transmissive structures on a substrate, each of the randomly located device structures has a bottom and a top;
- wherein the bottom is between the top and the substrate;
- wherein cross-sections adjacent the tops of the randomly located transmissive structures have smaller areas than cross-sections adjacent the bottoms of the randomly located transmissive structures;
- wherein the areas are disposed in an XY matrix;
- and
- wherein the randomly located transmissive structures are made from a transmissive polymerized material.
An apparatus comprising:
- an optical device having a plurality of areas, the areas disposed in a matrix;
- wherein the all of the areas have a substantially identical pattern of randomly located transmissive structures, and the optical device, viewed as a whole, appears macroscopically uniform and without an apparent grid pattern.
An apparatus comprising:
- a transmissive optical device having a plurality of areas on a substrate, the areas disposed in an XY matrix;
- wherein the all of the areas have a substantially identical pattern of randomly placed transmissive structures on the substrate, and the optical device, viewed over the substrate as a whole, appears macroscopically uniform and without an apparent grid pattern;
- wherein each of the transmissive structures are formed from transparent photopolymerized material;
- wherein each of the transmissive structures has a bottom and a top, the bottom is between the top and the substrate;
- wherein cross-sections adjacent the tops of the device structures have smaller areas than cross-sections adjacent the bottoms of the transmissive structures;
- and wherein at least two adjacent transmissive structures are substantially linked and not fully separated from each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.