Patent ID: 8602592

Claim:
Optical apparatus for projecting radiation into a spot of predetermined length and width in a working plane, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of stacks of diode-laser bars, each stack arranged to provide a beam of laser radiation, the diode-laser bars having a length, a slow-axis aligned with the length, a fast-axis perpendicular to the slow-axis, and a propagation-axis perpendicular to the fast-axis and the slow-axis, the diode-laser bars in each stack thereof being arranged one above another in the fast-axis direction, with the diode-laser bar stacks spaced-apart and aligned in the slow-axis direction; a corresponding plurality of beam-expanders, one for each of the diode-laser bar stacks, each of the beam-expanders arranged to expand the beam from the corresponding diode-laser bar stack in the slow-axis direction only; and an optical arrangement, including a spherical focusing lens, arranged to collect the slow-axis expanded beams and project the slow-axis expanded beams into the working plane in the slow-axis to form the length of radiation spot.