Patent ID: 6951627

Claim:
A method for forming a plurality or features in a work piece with a laser comprising the steps of: receiving a laser beam directed along an optical path; directing the laser beam through a mask to create a sub-beam; imaging the sub-beam onto the work piece through a lens system, the lens system having an absolute magnification of less than 1, to create a reduced-size image of the mask on the work piece at a first location, the reduced-size image exhibiting blurring due to diffraction limiting of the sub-beam; forming a first feature of said plurality of features with said sub-beam at the first location; moving the mask to move the reduced-size image of the mask to a second location an the work piece; and forming at least a second feature of said plurality of features at the second location wherein the first and second features are spaced close together such that the first and second features could not be made by a single mask in a single step due to the diffraction blurring in the reduced-size image.