A tuneable flat panel UV exposure system for screen printing is provided. The panel includes a plurality of UV LED chips where each chip is connected to multiple, independently controllable power sources and pulse width modulation circuits. The power sources allow an operator to control a plurality of different wavelength outputs independently for each UV LED in the panel.

Systems, devices, and methods for printing on surfaces of three-dimensional objects are provided. The systems, devices, and methods allow for images, and three-dimensional structures, to be printed onto a surface of a three-dimensional object. The surface of the three-dimensional object can have many different shapes, including an arbitrary or non-uniform shape having multiple curves. In one exemplary embodiment, the method includes associating a pattern of polygons with a surface of a three-dimensional object and then scaling a pattern of polygons associated with an image to be printed onto the surface with the pattern of polygons associated with the surface. One or more polygons of the scaled pattern of polygons are then progressively projected onto the surface, and a photosensitive material associated with the surface is cured to set projected image portion on the surface. Systems, devices, and other methods for printing onto surfaces of three-dimensional objects are also provided.

Systems and processes for making a flexo plate, and plates made thereby. Non-printing indicia defined by areas of presence and absence of polymer in the plate floor created using microdots imaged during a LAMS layer imaging step are readable downstream of the washing or other non-cured-polymer-removal step but not to print in the printing step. The non-printing indicia may define a repeating pattern of alphanumeric characters, non-text graphics, or a combination thereof. A difference in growth of plate structures corresponding to different types of microdots may be used for characterizing processing conditions.

A method of making a lithographic printing plate includes the steps of (i) image wise exposing a lithographic printing plate precursor with a digitally modulated light source so as to obtain image areas in the exposed parts of the precursor and non-image areas in the non-exposed parts of the precursor, the precursor including a hydrophilic substrate and a photosensitive layer applied onto the substrate, the photosensitive layer including a diazonium compound; and (ii) contacting the exposed precursor with an aqueous solution including a water-soluble hydrophilic polymer and/or surfactant and having a pH between 3 and 9 thereby first removing the photosensitive layer in the non-image areas and depositing the hydrophilic polymer and/or surfactant onto the substrate in the non-image areas of the printing plate precursor.

A device for measuring reference points in real time during lithographic printing includes a light source providing an exposure beam; a light modulator modulating the exposure beam according to an exposure pattern; a measurement system configured to measure a position of a number of alignment marks previously arranged on a substrate; and an exposure optical system comprising a control unit. The exposure optical system delivers the modulated exposure beam as an image provided by the light modulator onto the substrate. The exposure system control unit is configured to calculate the orientation of the substrate based on the position of the alignment marks and control the delivering of the modulated exposure beam relative to the calculated orientation of the substrate.

A digital lithography system may adjust a wavelength of the light source to compensate for tilt errors in micromirrors while maintaining a perpendicular direction for the reflected light. Adjacent pixels may have a phase shift that is determined by an optical path difference between their respective light beams. This phase shift may be preselected to be any value by generating a corresponding wavelength at the light source based on the optical path difference. To generate a specific wavelength corresponding to the desired phase shift, the light source may produce multiple light components that have wavelengths that bracket the wavelength of the selected phase shift. The intensities of these components may then be controlled individually to produce an effect that approximates the selected phase shift on the substrate.

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.

The present invention discloses an apparatus for making direct writing screen plate and a using method thereof. The present invention provides a direct writing screen plate making apparatus and a focal plane control method. A Z-axis controller is used to pre-establish a mapping relation between the focal plane position of the scanning band to be scanned in the next step and the scanning platform position signal. During the next step of scanning, the position of the optical lens is adjusted according to the mapping relation, thus avoiding the problem of inconsistency between the calculated focal plane and the actual focal plane caused by the position deviation between the assembled displacement sensor and the optical lens. The present invention also provides a method for exposing a region of interest and a method for compensating the on-line real-time light uniformity.

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.

A method for exposing a light-sensitive layer to light using an optical system, wherein at least one light beam is generated by respectively at least one light source and pixels of an exposure pattern grid are illuminated by at least one micro-mirror device with a plurality of micro-mirrors. An affine distortion takes place, in particular a shearing, of the exposure pattern grid.