Laser appartus with digital manipulation capabilities

A laser processing apparatus comprising a laser light beam source for generating a laser light beam, a mirror configured for reflecting the laser light beam from the laser light beam source, and a controller configured for controlling a drive of the mirror so as to two-dimensionally scan the laser light beam based on a processing pattern, and performing laser processing on an article to be processed in a scanning region of the laser light beam by the controller, the laser processing apparatus comprising:

• a setting display section for displaying a two-dimensional setting plane corresponding to the scanning region and the processing pattern within the setting plane;
• a pattern arrangement specifying section for specifying an arrangement of the processing pattern on the setting plane displayed by the setting display section and for specifying a reference point that moves in cooperation with the processing pattern on the setting plane while maintaining position relationship with the processing pattern;
• a photographing section, arranged on the laser light beam source side from the mirror and including a light receiving axis substantially coaxial with the optical axis of the laser light beam, and configured for photographing a region which is smaller than the scanning region of the laser light beam;
• and
• a photographed image display section for displaying an image photographed by the photographing section and an axis position of the light receiving axis on the photographed image,
• wherein the controller controls a drive of the mirror so as to substantially coincide the light receiving axis on a correspondence position in the scanning region corresponding to the reference point specified on the setting plane by the pattern arrangement specifying section, prior to performing laser processing on the article to be processed.