Patent ID: 6859326

Claim:
An optical device for shaping an optical beam according to a prescribed intensity profile within a desired far-field scatter pattern comprising: an optical substrate; an array of microlenses distributed on the substrate; each microlens being defined within the array by values for a set of parameters that are generally different from values for the same set of parameters that define other microlenses of the array; the parameters including a sag profile corresponding to a surface shape of the microlenses, a boundary profile corresponding to a boundary of the microlenses, and a spatial distribution corresponding to the relative position of the microlenses within the array; the sag profile being varied between the microlenses of the array to homogenize the intensity profile of the optical beam; the boundary profile being varied between the microlenses within an irregular spatial distribution to apply the prescribed intensity profile within the desired far-field scatter pattern; the sag profile being varied between the microlenses of the array according to a probability distribution function; and the sag profile being defined by one or more random variables that satisfy the probability distribution function within an allowed range.