METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR CREATING APERTURES THROUGH MICROLENS ARRAYS USING CURVED CRADLES, AND PRODUCTS PRODUCED THEREBY

• Main Authors: GARDNER RICHARD N, WILSON JOHN W, COX BRIAN C, JERNIGAN REESE A, REED DAVID L
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Korean
• Published: 08.07.2009
• Subjects: ACCESSORIES THEREFOR; APPARATUS OR ARRANGEMENTS EMPLOYING ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USINGWAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; APPARATUS OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS OR FORPROJECTING OR VIEWING THEM; CINEMATOGRAPHY; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHYSICS; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; TRANSPORTING; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM

Methods for creating apertures in a layer on a back side of a substrate that includes a microlens array on a front side thereof include curving the substrate into a cylindrical surface segment that defines an axis, so that the microlens array on the front side of the substrate faces the axis. A pulsed laser beam is scanned from the axis circumferentially along the cylindrical surface segment, to pass through the microlens array on the front side of the substrate and into the layer on the back side of the substrate to create the apertures, while simultaneously translating the substrate and/or the scanned pulsed laser beam axially relative to one another. Related apparatus and microlens array products are also disclosed.