Autosynchronous optical scanning and recording laser system with fiber optic light detection

Claim 2

In a scanning and recording device for making an image of an object including; means for simultaneously linearly advancing the object and a photosensitive recording surface disposed in parallel spaced apart facing arrangement on opposite sides of a rectilinear scan deflector means; means for providing a first modulatable beam of coherent laser radiation; means for providing a second beam of focusable radiation; optical scanning means for receiving said first and second beams and for causing said beams to be directed along narrowly divergent paths toward said rectilinear deflector means and then directing said first beam toward said photosensitive surface while simultaneously directing said second beam toward said object in cooperation with said advancing means to form a simultaneous rectilinear scanning raster pattern of said beams across said surface and said object respectively; said optical scanning means further comprising flat field lens means to simultaneously focus both beams; photodetector means for receiving radiation from the object and for generating an electrical signal representative of said radiation; means responsive to said electrical signal for modulating said first beam; and a fiber optic line-to-spot converter having a plurality of internally-reflecting light-transmitting fibers arranged in a linear array adjacent the rectilinear scan deflector means to transmit radiation from the object to the photodetector means.

Claim 3

A device according to claim 1 wherein said optical scanning means comprises: means for combining said first and second beams along narrowly converging paths; said optical scanning means comprising mirror means; and means for directing said combined beams toward said mirror means and by reflection from said mirror means toward said flat field lens means.

Claim 4

The device of claim 1 wherein: said photosensitive recording surface comprises a planar substrate at a normal angle and in said rectilinear raster; and means for mounting the object in opposing planar position above said substrate for motion together with said substrate.

Claim 5

A device according to claim 1, wherein said first beam comprises actinic laser light having an ultraviolet wavelength and said second beam comprises visible light for reading the object.

Claim 6

A device according to claim 4 wherein said optical scanning means comprises: dichroic means for reflecting one of said beams while transmitting the other of said beams to separate said combined first and second beams.

Claim 7

The device of claim 1, said optical scanning means comprising: a regular polygonal mirror structure having a plurality of equally spaced mirrors and means for rotating said polygonal mirror structure at a constant rate.

Claim 8

The device of claim 6 including means for reflecting said first and second beams simultaneously from a single mirror facet.

Claim 9

The device of claim 1 wherein the flat field lens means has a non-uniform focal length and includes: means for focusing scanned beams as a uniform spot of above 50μ size in said rectilinear raster on said photosensitive surface and on said object.

Claim 10

The device of claim 8 further comprising means for correlating said optical scanning means and said advancing means to obtain a raster line width of about 50μ.

Claim 15

The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of: providing a fiber optic line-to-spot converter for transmitting said light received from the object to said signal means.

Claim 16

The method of claim 11 wherein the recording medium consists essentially of a photoresist coating on a circuit board substrate.

Claim 17

The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of modulating the recording beam by driving an acousto-optic modulator in response to the electrical signal.

Claim 18

The method of claim 11 which further comprises the step of recording a relief pattern in a photocurable polymer recording medium wherein the recording beam includes ultra violet radiation.

Claim 19

The method of claim 15 wherein the polymeric medium consists essentially of the photo-reaction product of a polyene and a polythiol.

Claim 20

The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of: directing the beams toward a common scanning mirror surface and thence through a flat field lens to provide autosynchronous scanning of said scanning energy beam and said recording beam.

Claim 21

The method of claim 17 including the steps of: disposing the object and recording medium in spaced apart facing planar relationship; directing the scanning energy beam and recording beam from the scanning mirror and flat field lens at narrowly diverging angles toward a dihedral mirror between the object and recording medium; directing the scanning energy beam at a substantially perpendicular angle from the dihedral mirror toward the object; directing the recording beam at a substantially perpendicular angle from the dihedral mirror in a direction essentially opposite to the scanning energy beam toward the recording medium; and moving the object, the recording medium, and the optical deviating means together parallel to the optical axis through the flat field lens to form a rectilinear raster pattern.

Claim 22

The method of claim 18 wherein the photosensitive recording medium consists essentially of an ablative medium comprising a thin uniform metal coating on a transparent substrate.

Claim 23

A laser recording system including a source of coherent radiation comprising an acousto-optic modulator disposed in a laser cavity, said modulator deflecting said coherent radiation in response to an electrical signal; means for directing an expanded and modulated coherent recording beam from said source of coherent radiation together with an interrogating beam; multi-faceted polygon mirror scanning means adapted to scan said interrogating beam and said recording beam simultaneously; means for focusing the scanned interrogating beam in a linear spot sweep position along an object plane perpendicular to an optical axis through said polygon mirror; means for focusing the scanned recording beam in a linear spot sweep position along an image plane perpendicular to said optical axis and parallel to said object plane; means for detecting interrogating beam radiation directly adjacent the linear sweep position of the object plane and generating an electrical signal representative of said detected radiation; and optical means for feeding back said electrical signal to operate said modulator.

Claim 24

A laser recording system including a source of coherent radiation comprising an acousto-optic modulator disposed in a laser cavity, said modulator deflecting said coherent radiation in response to an electrical signal; means for directing an expanded and modulated coherent recording beam from said source of coherent radiation together with an interrogating beam; multi-faceted polygon mirror scanning means adapted to scan said interrogating beam and said recording beam simultaneously; means for focusing the scanned interrogating beam in a linear spot sweep position along an object plane perpendicular to an optical axis through said polygon mirror; means for focusing the scanned recording beam in a linear spot sweep position along an image plane perpendicular to said optical axis and parallel to said object plane; means for detecting interrogating beam radiation directly adjacent the linear sweep position of the object plane and generating an electrical signal representative of said detected radiation; and optical means for feeding back said electrical signal to operate said modulator.

Claim 25

An optical scanning and recording system comprising: an object to be recorded and a photosensitive image recording medium; a first source for a modulatable beam of coherent radiation; a second source for a second beam of radiation; means for combining said first and second beams of radiation; optical scanning means disposed to receive said combined first and second beams of radiation to provide autosynchronous deflection of said first and second beams of radiation; means for directing said first beam toward a photosensitive medium; means for directing said second beam toward the object to be recorded; means for creating relative linear motion along the scanning means axis between the object and the photosensitive medium, and the optical scanning means; flat field lens means disposed to receive radiation from said optical scanning means and to focus said first and second beams of radiation to form diffraction-limited spots along scan lines corresponding to object and image planes; means for separating said first and second beams of scanned and focused radiation and means to direct said first and second beams of scanned and focused radiation along separate paths, whereby said first beam of radiation scans the image plane and said second beam scans the object plane; internal reflection means disposed to receive radiation from the object; photodetector means for generating an electrical signal which varies substantially in proportion to the intensity of radiation received from said internal reflection means; and electrical processing means responsive to the electrical signal for generating an electrical signal for modulating said first beam intensity, whereby data representative of the imagery content of said object is recorded.

Claim 26

An optical scanning and recording system comprising: an object to be recorded and a photosensitive image recording medium; a first source for a modulatable beam of coherent radiation; a second source for a second beam of radiation; means for combining said first and second beams of radiation; optical scanning means disposed to receive said combined first and second beams of radiation to provide autosynchronous deflection of said first and second beams of radiation; means for directing said first beam toward a photosensitive medium; means for directing said second beam toward the object to be recorded; means for creating relative linear motion along the scanning means axis between the object and the photosensitive medium, and the optical scanning means; flat field lens means disposed to receive radiation from said optical scanning means and to focus said first and second beams of radiation to form diffraction-limited spots along scan lines corresponding to object and image planes; means for separating said first and second beams of scanned and focused radiation and means to direct said first and second beams of scanned and focused radiation along separate paths, whereby said first beam of radiation scans the image plane and said second beam scans the object plane; internal reflection means disposed to receive radiation from the object; photodetector means for generating an electrical signal which varies substantially in proportion to the intensity of radiation received from said internal reflection means; and electrical processing means responsive to the electrical signal for generating an electrical signal for modulating said first beam intensity, whereby data representative of the imagery content of said object is recorded.

Claim 27

A recording system comprising a flat object plane and a flat recording plane, a first beam to interrogate said object plane, a second beam to record an image of the object plane in the recording plane, means to simultaneously scan said first and second beams across their respective planes, said scanning means including mirror means which simultaneously reflects said first and second beams, flat field lens means to simultaneously focus said beams onto their respective flat planes, means to modulate said recording beam, and fiber optic feedback means adapted to detect a spot on said object plane struck by said interrogation beam and to modulate said recording beam in its striking the corresponding spot in said recording plane, whereby a spot by spot accurate image of said object is created in said recording plane.

Claim 28

A recording system comprising a flat object plane and a flat recording plane, a first beam to interrogate said object plane, a second beam to record an image of the object plane in the recording plane, means to simultaneously scan said first and second beams across their respective planes, said scanning means including mirror means which simultaneously reflects said first and second beams, flat field lens means to simultaneously focus said beams onto their respective flat planes, means to modulate said recording beam, and fiber optic feedback means adapted to detect a spot on said object plane struck by said interrogation beam and to modulate said recording beam in its striking the corresponding spot in said recording plane, whereby a spot by spot accurate image of said object is created in said recording plane.

Claim 29

The combination of claim 22, wherein said mirror means comprises a rotating polygon mirror, and wherein said first and second beams are simultaneously reflected from a single facet of said rotating polygon mirror to thereby generate a line of spots in said scan.

Claim 30

The combination of claim 22, wherein said interrogating beam comprises visible light and said recording beam comprises laser light.

Claim 31

The combination of claim 22 and a carriage, means to mount said planes in spaced apart parallel relation to each other, means to move said carriage along a line parallel to and between said planes, said scanning means comprising raster scanning means at least partially mounted on said carriage and formed by said linear carriage motion means together with said mirror means which sweeps both said beams in a plane parallel to said object and recording planes, said scanning means comprising means to direct said beams onto said mirror means along narrowly convergent angles and thence off said mirror means along narrowly divergent angles, and deflection means on said carriage adapted to separate and reflect said beams onto their respective planes.

Claim 32

The combination of claim 22, said fiber optic feedback means comprising a line-to-spot converter bundle, means to mount the line array end of said bundle in closely spaced relation to the portion of said optic plant being struck by said interrogating beam, whereby each spot struck by said interrogating beam in said object plane is detected by a relatively large number of the fibers in said bundle.

Claim 35

The method of claim 27, wherein said scanning step is a raster scan formed by relative motion of said beams with respect to said planes together with simultaneous sweeping motion of both said beams reflected from a single mirror.

Claim 38

The method of claim 29, wherein said scanning step is an autosynchronous raster scan of both said beams over their respective planes formed by relative motion of said beams with respect to said planes together with simultaneous sweeping motion of both said beams reflected from a single mirror.

Claim 41

The method of claim 31 further comprising the step of providing a fiber optic line-to-spot converter for transmitting said light received from the object to said signal means.

Claim 42

The method of claim 31 further comprising the step of modulating the recording beam by driving an acousto-optic modulator in response to the electrical signal.

Claim 43

The method of claim 31 wherein said medium comprises a photocurable polymer recording medium, and wherein the recording beam includes ultra violet radiation.

Claim 44

The method of claim 34 wherein the polymeric medium consists essentially of the photo-reaction product of a polyene and a polythiol.

Claim 45

The method of claim 31, further comprising the step of directing the beams toward a common scanning mirror surface and thence through a flat field lens to provide autosynchronous scanning of said scanning energy beam and said recording beam.

Claim 46

The method of claim 36 including the steps of: disposing the object and recording planes in spaced apart facing relationship; directing the scanning energy beam and recording beam from the scanning mirror and flat field lens at narrowly diverging angles toward a dihedral mirror between the object and recording medium; directing the scanning energy beam at a substantially perpendicular angle from the dihedral mirror toward the object; directing the recording beam at a substantially perpendicular angle from the dihedral mirror in a direction essentially opposite to the scanning energy beam toward the recording medium; and moving the object, the recording medium, and the optical deviating means together parallel to the optical axis through the flat field lens to form a rectilinear raster pattern.

Claim 47

The method of claim 37 wherein the photosensitive recording medium consists essentially of an ablative medium comprising a thin uniform metal coating on a transparant substrate.

Claim 48

The method of claim 37 wherein the photosensitive recording medium consists essentially of a photoresist coating on a circuit board substrate.