Patent ID: 7665665

Claim:
A digital illumination and imaging system comprising: one or more planar laser illumination modules (PLIMs), wherein each said PLIM includes (i) a laser illumination source driven by a high frequency modulated (HFM) diode current drive circuit, (ii) a beam collimating optics disposed beyond said laser illumination source, (ii) an optical beam multiplexer (OMUX) device disposed beyond said beam collimating optics, and (iv) a planarizing illumination lens array disposed beyond said OMUX device, and arranged for generating a plurality of substantially planar coherence-reduced laser illumination beams (PLIBs) that form a composite substantially planar laser illumination beam having substantially reduced spatial coherence and temporal coherence; and a digital image detection array for detecting digital images of an object illuminated by said composite substantially planar laser illumination beam; wherein the power of speckle pattern noise observed in a digital image of said object detected at said digital image detection array is substantially reduced when said digital image is formed using said substantially planar laser illumination beam.