Patent ID: 7615722

Claim:
Apparatus for crystallizing a silicon layer supported by substrate in a working plane, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of external-cavity, optically pumped, surface-emitting semiconductor (OPS) lasers arranged to generate a corresponding plurality of continuous wave laser-beams; a beam-homogenizer and line projector; an arrangement for propagating the beams along parallel paths such that each beam at least partially overlaps an adjacent beam in an entrance plane of the beam homogenizer and line projector transverse to the parallel paths to form a combined beam; and wherein the homogenizer and line projector is configured and arranged to divide the combined beam, in an axis transverse to the propagation direction, into a plurality of beam portions, and to project the beam portions into an elongated area in the working plane in a manner such that each of the beam portions essentially fills the elongated area and wherein the homogenizer and line projector have a longitudinal Z-axis and a Y-axis transverse to the Z-axis, and an X-axis transverse to the Z-axis and perpendicular to the Y-axis and wherein said arrangement propagates the beams along paths parallel to the Z axis of the homogenizer and line projector and wherein the homogenizer and line projector includes an array of elongated rectangular reflectors aligned parallel to the X axis and having a length in the X-axis, said homogenizer including a lens system and wherein the reflective surface array and the lens system are configured such that the reflective surface array divides the combined beam, in the Y-axis, into a plurality of beam portions and the lens system projects the beam portions into an elongated area in the working plane, with the elongated area having a length and width parallel to respective Y-axis and X-axis and with each of the beam portions essentially filling the elongated area.