Patent ID: 7864429

Claim:
A system, comprising: a plurality of optical elements arranged so that during operation of the system the optical elements direct radiation along an axis from a source to irradiate a continuous area of a surface, the plurality of optical elements being configured to expand the radiation at the surface in a first direction and focus the radiation at the surface in a second direction, the first and second directions being orthogonal to each other and orthogonal to the axis at the surface, the plurality of optical elements comprising: an optical element positioned at a location along the axis between the source an the surface, the optical element comprising a plurality of portions arranged at different positions with respect to the first direction, wherein the portions of the optical element are configured to direct corresponding parts of the radiation along different paths so that when the radiation is focused at the surface in the second direction at least some of the different parts are displaced relative to each other in the second direction, and wherein the area has a dimension greater than 300 mm in the first direction and a dimension of between 3 Î¼m and 100 Î¼m in the second direction.