Patent ID: 6873398

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a multichannel spatial light modulator (SLM) accepting a plurality of modulating signals and having an optically active region, the SLM having a number of modulating elements, the number greater than the number of modulating signals; a laser beam source operative to generate a single-mode laser beam of energy, a beam multiplier between the radiation source and the SLM operative to accept the single-mode beam and to generate from the beam a plurality of beams directed onto the SLM to illuminate the SLM's optically active region, such that the SLM generates a plurality of modulated beams modulated according to the modulating signals and wherein each of the plurality of beams from the beam multiplier illuminates a plurality of modulating elements each such plurality of elements controlled by a corresponding modulating signal; and a first optical subsystem including at least one optical element, located between the SLM and an imaging plane at which a recording medium sensitive to imaging radiation may be placed, the recording medium capable of being permanently marked in response to incidence of such imaging radiation, the first optical subsystem operative to focus the beams generated from the SLM onto the imaging plane, wherein the beams generated by the SLM when the SLM is illuminated are each from a plurality of elements of the SLM, and such that the first optical subsystem may be designed using diffraction-limited optics.