Abstract: A method for exposing a polymer or other substrate (S) to patterned illumination from a pulsed laser source (12) at a suitable energy density in order to cause ablation of the surface to form a dense, regular array of 2-D or 3-D microstructures, characterised by the steps of: locating a mask (13) containing a series of identical or different features on a fixed pitch relative to a target area (14) of the substrate (S); projecting a uniform laser beam (18) through the mask (13) in order to project an image made up of a multiplicity of the features of the mask (13) onto the target area (14), de-magnifying the image carried by the beam (18) between the mask (13) and the target area (14); locating a substrate (S) for ablation in the target area (14); moving the substrate (S), at least while in the target area, in a first direction (D1) parallel to one axis of the projected array of microstructures and also in a second direction (D2) perpendicular to the first direction; and controlling (20) the firing of the puls

Abstract: A method for forming a regularly repeating pattern in a thin film on a substrate by ablating it directly with radiation form a pulsed laser beam characterised in that the radiation beam is caused to pass through a suitable mask delineating the pattern, the image of the mask pattern being de-magnified onto the surface of the film by a suitable projection lens so that the energy density at the film is sufficiently high so as to cause the film to be removed directly by ablation, the imprinting steps being carried out: in a repetitive series of discrete laser ablation steps using a mask that is stationary with respect to the projection lens and represents only a small area of the total area of the substrate and using a single short pulse of radiation at each step to illuminate the mask, the radiation pulse having such an energy density at the substrate that it is above the threshold value for ablation of the film; and the series of discrete laser ablation steps being repeated over the full area of the surface of

Abstract: A method is described for accurately positioning laser scribed lines in a thin top layer of material which overcoats one or more other lower layers in which lines have already been scribed for the purpose of making solar panels. This is accomplished by means of an optics unit that generates one or more laser beams in order to scribe one or more lines in the top layer on the panel. An alignment detector system is attached to the optics unit and the detector is displaced from the optics unit by a distance such that the detector measures the position of one of the scribes in the lower layers in the area of the panel that will be scribed at a subsequent time.