Homogenization and beam shaping with microlens arrays

Mostly; the typical light distribution of a light source, as a LED or an excimer laser, is not suitable for the application. The excimer laser beam for example shows a distinct elliptical Gaussian profile. As another example the layout of the light emitting chip and the reflector of a LED form an extremely inhomogeneous luminescent area. To achieve a better adapted beam profile a homogenizing setup with beam shaping qualities can be used. In this talk two setups for homogenization with the help of refractive micro lens arrays are shown and compared. The main attention is turned on,the influence of the numerical aperture of the micro lenses, the limitations due to the spatial coherence degree and the difficulties of the alignment of the systems. In addition, a diffractive solution of homogenization for spatial partially coherence is presented.