Patent ID: 11933962
Assignee: SILICON LIGHT MACHINES CORPORATION
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  B  Y | IPC G

Claim 12:
13. A printing system comprising:
a laser;
a workpiece having a surface on which an image is to be printed using the laser;
a spatial light modulator (SLM) including a multi-pixel linear array each pixel comprising one or more microelectromechanical system (MEMS) based diffractors, and each MEMS based diffractor comprising an electrostatically deflectable member coupled to a first light reflective surface and operable to bring light reflected from the first light reflective surface into interference with light reflected from a second light reflective surface in the SLM when the electrostatically deflectable member is deflected by an electrostatic force generated by a driver coupled thereto;
illumination optics operable to illuminate the SLM with light from the laser;
imaging optics operable to focus modulated light from the SLM onto a surface of the workpiece; and
a controller operable to control the laser, the SLM, imaging optics and a fixture on which the workpiece is positioned to scan the modulated light across the surface of the workpiece,
wherein the controller is further operable to provide analog gray-scale control of an intensity of modulated light reflected from each MEMS based diffractor by controlling the electrostatic force generated by the driver coupled thereto, and
wherein the electrostatically deflectable members in each MEMS based diffractor comprise low mass and high tension members suspended over a surface of a substrate on which the SLM is formed, and are operable to provide high speed switching between a reflecting and non-reflecting state of less than about 300 ns.