Patent ID: 8547641

Claim:
Optical apparatus for forming a line of radiation having a length and a width in a working plane at a working distance from the apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of spaced-apart stacks of diode-laser bars, each of the diode-laser bars having a plurality of diode-laser emitters, and having a fast-axis and a slow-axis perpendicular to the fast-axis and parallel to a length dimension of the bars, the diode-laser bars in the stacks stacked in the fast-axis direction thereof; a plurality of collimating arrangements corresponding in number to the number of diode-laser bars for collimating the output radiation of the diode-laser bars in the diode-laser bars stacks in at least the fast-axis direction, thereby forming a plurality of output-radiation beams corresponding in number to the plurality of diode-laser bar stacks; one or more lens elements having optical power in one of the fast-axis and slow-axis only; one or more diffractive optical elements; and wherein the combination of the one or more lens elements and the one or more diffractive optical elements is configured and arranged to spread the plurality of output-radiation beams from the stacks of diode-laser bars into a line of radiation in the working plane such that each beam contributes about equally to the length of the line of radiation.