Patent ID: 7494272

Claim:
Apparatus for thermal processing a workpiece, comprising: a source of laser radiation emitting at a laser wavelength and comprising an array of lasers arranged in rows and columns, the optical power of each said laser being individual adjustable; optics for focusing the radiation from said array of lasers into a narrow line beam in a workpiece plane corresponding to a workpiece surface, whereby said optics images respective columns of said laser array onto respective sections of said narrow line beam; a pyrometer sensor sensitive to a pyrometer wavelength; an optical element in an optical path of said optics and tuned to divert radiation emanating from said workpiece plane to said pyrometry sensor, whereby said optics images each said respective section of said narrow line beam onto a corresponding portion of said pyrometer sensor; and a controller responsive to said pyrometry sensor and coupled to adjust individual optical outputs of respective columns of said laser array in accordance with outputs of corresponding portions of said pyrometry sensor.