Abstract: A driving system has a driving mechanism for producing a driving force, a drive controlling device for controlling the driving mechanism, and a temperature adjusting mechanism for collecting heat from the driving mechanism, wherein a cooling amount of the temperature adjusting mechanism is controlled on the basis of a signal applied from the drive controlling device to the driving mechanism. The cooling amount required for the driving mechanism or the amount of heat generation in the driving mechanism is predicted, on the basis of a signal applied to the driving mechanism, and the cooling amount is then controlled.

Abstract: A microscopy and/or lithography system uses a comparatively low-resolution image projection system, which has a very small numerical aperture but large image field, in conjunction with a microlens array comprising miniature lens elements, each of which has a large numerical aperture but very small field. The projection system contains a small aperture stop which is imaged by the microlenses onto an array of diffraction-limited microspots on the microscope sample or printing surface at the microlens focal point positions, and the surface is scanned to build up a complete raster image from the focal point array. The system design thus circumvents the tradeoff between image resolution and field size which is the source of much of the complexity and expense of conventional wide-field, high-NA microscopy and microlithography systems.

Abstract: The tripod includes a spider for the articulation of the legs and a support mounted in the spider with a first seat coaxial with the principal axis of the tripod and a second seat with an axis substantially perpendicular to the first seat so that a column of the tripod can be housed alternatively and removably either in the first seat or in the second seat.

Abstract: A document copy system includes a preview sensor that is dedicated to document previewing and distinct from any other sensor that is involved in the document copying process. The preview sensor is preferably a two-dimensional sensor array that captures the outline of an entire document in parallel. The captured document outline is previewed on a display device relative to an actual print area that is defined by the copy system. In an enhanced embodiment of the copy system, the preview sensor captures an image that is printed on the document in addition to the outline of the document, so that the image of the document is also previewed relative to the print area. Providing a dedicated preview sensor that captures document position and image data in parallel enables real-time display of a document relative to the print area.