Patent ID: 7551359

Claim:
A system comprising: a light source to provide an incident light beam; and a beam splitter apparatus to split the incident light beam into at least (2 n −1) beamlets, n being at least 3, wherein the beam splitter apparatus comprises: a beam splitter; and (2n−2) prisms in optical contact with the beam splitter; wherein the beam splitter is a cube beam splitter comprising: a first side; a second side perpendicular to the first side; a third side perpendicular to the second side; and a fourth side perpendicular to the first side, and wherein the (2n−2) prisms comprises: a first prism member positioned along the first side of the cube beam splitter; a second prism member positioned along the second side of the cube beam splitter; a third prism member positioned along the third side of the cube beam splitter; a fourth prism member positioned along the fourth side of the cube beam splitter.