Patent ID: 7170588

Claim:
An optical imaging system comprising: a diffracting photomask to direct one or more beams of illumination toward a transmitting interference prism; a transmitting interference prism comprising a refractive material with an index of refraction greater than air and one or more surfaces disposed at the boundary between the refractive material and air or other refractive media; wherein said prism further comprises a beam entry surface positioned after the diffracting photomask and a beam exit surface positioned before an imaging media, wherein said entry and exit surfaces are in parallel planes, disposed transverse to the beam path, and spaced apart by said refractive material with an index of refraction greater than air; and one or more pairs of internally reflecting surfaces disposed in planes that intersect both the entry and exit surfaces, and form supplementary angles at the intersect to the exit surface for recombining the beams; said imaging media with a refractive index greater than unity; an imaging plane and a photosensitive material to record an incident image; and an exposing source to illuminate the diffracting photomask.