Patent ID: 7002739

Claim:
An optical device for producing an incoherent rectilinear light beam having a thin elongated cross section from a coherent laser beam comprising: a laser light source for emitting a coherent laser beam with a substantially circular or elliptical cross section; a micromirror device having a plurality of micromirrors that are arranged in a two-dimensional array and repetitively receive driving pulse signals to vibrate at high speed; and a micromirror driving circuit for uniformly and repetitively supplying the driving pulse signals with high frequency to substantially all the micromirrors of the micromirror device; wherein said micromirror device receives the coherent laser beam emitted from the laser light source and produces the incoherent rectilinear light beam having substantially uniform luminescence and diverging in a first direction due to the high speed vibrations of the plurality of the micromirrors as a whole.