An apparatus comprises: (a) a rotatable drum configured to have a UV-curable printing plate with an ablatable layer thereon, placed thereon; (b) at least one laser beam to image the plate on the drum by ablating some of the ablatable layer according to image data to form an imaged plate; (c) an unloading area onto which a plate is movable when unloaded; and (d) a plurality of UV LEDs configured to apply UV radiation to the back of the UV-curable plate or to both the front and back of the UV-curable plate during or after the unloading of the imaged plate.

An apparatus for back-exposing a printing plate and method for exposing a printing plate therewith. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are arranged in one or more arrays, including at least two sets of LEDs, each set having an emission spectrum different than a corresponding emission spectrum of at least one other set. One or more controllers connected to the LED array is configured to activate the array to cause the plurality of sets of LEDs to emit radiation toward the back, non-printing side of the printing plate simultaneously. Performing the method includes providing the one or more arrays spaced a pre-defined distance from the printing plate and irradiating the back, non-printing side of the printing plate with the emission spectra of the at least two sets of LEDs simultaneously.

Embodiments described herein provide a system, a software application, and a method of a lithography process, to write full tone portions and grey tone portions in a single pass. One embodiment includes a controller configured to provide mask pattern data to a lithography system. The controller is configured to divide a plurality of spatial light modulator pixels spatially by at least a grey tone group and a full tone group of spatial light modulator pixels. When divided by the controller, the grey tone group of spatial light modulator pixels is operable to project a first number of the multiplicity of shots to the plurality of full tone exposure polygons and the plurality of grey tone exposure polygons, and the full tone group of spatial light modulator pixels is operable to project a second number of the multiplicity of shots to the plurality of full tone exposure polygons.

A control system controls a drive system of a substrate holder, based on correction information to compensate for measurement error of a measurement system including an encoder system that occurs due to movement of at least one of a plurality of grating areas (scale), a plurality of heads and a substrate holder, and position information measured by the measurement system, and a measurement beam from a head of each of the plurality of heads moves off from one of the plurality of grating areas and switches to another adjacent grating area, during the movement of the substrate holder in the X-axis direction.

In an exposure apparatus, on a substrate holder, a plurality of grating areas is arranged mutually apart in the X-axis direction, and a plurality of heads that irradiates a measurement beam with respect to the grating area and can move in the Y-axis direction is arranged outside of the substrate holder. A control system controls movement of the substrate holder in at least directions of three degrees of freedom within an XY plane, based on measurement information of at least three heads of the plurality of heads facing the grating area and measurement information of a measurement device that measures position information of the plurality of heads. The measurement beam of each of the plurality of heads, during the movement of substrate holder in the X-axis direction, moves off of one of the plurality of grating areas and switches to another adjacent grating area.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods for producing images on substrates. The method includes providing a p-polarization beam to a first mirror cube having a first digital micromirror device (DMD), providing an s-polarization beam to a second mirror cube having a second DMD, and reflecting the p-polarization beam off the first DMD and reflecting the s-polarization beam off the second DMD such that the p-polarization beam and the s-polarization beam are reflected towards a light altering device configured to produce a plurality of superimposed images on the substrate.

Systems and methods for patterning nail polish are disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a source of light, and a programmable mask that can selectively transmit light to a photoresist nail polish. In some embodiments, the programmable mask is a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a digital light processing screen (DLP). The system may also include a controller configured for controlling the light transmission properties of the programmable mask.

Apparatus and method for directly curing photopolymer printing plates, such as with UV radiation. Printing plates are cured directly by radiation, such as emitted from a high power UV laser beam. No LAMS layer or film bearing the image information is required on top of the polymer plate. The laser beam may be split into several individually-modulated beams by means of an Acousto Optical Deflector. Each individual beam is capable of curing pixels of the image that are to be transferred to the printing plate. Support shoulders for the printing details, formed by the pixels are determined by the caustic of the UV beam propagation.

A mask plate, an exposure system and an exposure method are disclosed. The mask plate includes a control unit (10) and a liquid crystal cell (20), wherein the control unit (10) is electrically connected to the liquid crystal cell (20) and configured to control the liquid crystal cell (20) to render a mask pattern. The mask plate can fulfill the requirements for various mask patterns, which not only save the manufacturing cost, but also simplifies the process operation.

A method and device for exposing a light-sensitive layer, said method comprising: generating at least one light ray by use of at least one light source, illuminating pixels of an exposure pattern by use of at least one micromirror device having a plurality of micromirrors with respective mirror intensity profiles, and overlaying the mirror intensity profiles of adjacent micromirrors to provide a pattern intensity profile of the exposure pattern by summing the mirror intensity profiles of each illuminated pixel of the exposure pattern.