Patent ID: 6992965

Claim:
A scanning apparatus for reading information in a three-dimensional information carrier formed with a plurality of spaced-apart data regions, each surrounded by surrounding regions, wherein the data regions are made of a material capable of generating an output excited radiation, when interacting with a predetermined incident exciting radiation, and the surrounding regions are substantially optically transparent, the apparatus comprising: a) an illumination unit producing a scanning beam of the incident radiation; b) a light directing unit for projecting said scanning beam on a scan region located in an addressed plane inside the carrier and collecting the produced output radiation, the light directing unit being capable of picking up a predetermined portion of the collected output radiation so as to provide spatial separation of the output radiation components produced by the data regions located in the addressed plane and the output radiation components produced by the data regions located at any other location inside the carrier; c) a detector unit having a receiving surface, and being capable of detecting the output radiation and generating data representative thereof; wherein said predetermined portion of the output radiation propagates within a solid angle substantially spatially separated from a solid angle of propagation of the incident radiation; and wherein the light directing unit comprises a beam splitter defining transmitting and blocking channels with respect to the incident radiation and output radiation, and transmitting and reflective channels with respect to the output radiation.