Patent ID: 7709378

Claim:
An apparatus for processing a thin metal layer disposed on a substrate comprising: (a) a pulsed radiation beam source configured to provide radiation beam pulses of sufficient strength to melt the thin metal layer throughout its entire thickness; (b) a beam mask configured to define, upon incidence of the radiation beam pulses, a respective intensity pattern of each one of the radiation beam pulses for irradiating at least a portion of the metal layer, the intensity pattern having at least one strip comprising of one or more shadow regions, having a width, and at least one strip comprising of one or more beamlets, having a width, wherein the beam mask is further configured such that during irradiation by a radiation beam pulse, each region of the at least a portion of the metal layer is overlapped by a respective one of the at least one strip comprising of one or more beamlets, and each region of the at least a portion of the metal layer is overlapped by a respective one of the at least one strip comprising of one or more shadow regions, and wherein the width of the at least one strip comprising of one or more shadow regions is less than the width of the at least one strip comprising of one or more beamlets; (c) a sample translation stage configured to hold the metal layer on the substrate while the at least a portion of the metal layer is being irradiated by the radiation beam pulses, and configured to translate the metal layer on the substrate in a lateral direction with respect to the radiation beam pulses; and wherein the sample translation stage is further configured to microtranslate the substrate having the metal layer in a lateral direction with respect to the radiation beam pulses so as to shift the intensity pattern of the radiation beam pulses with respect to the metal layer from one radiation beam pulse to another.