Method and system for optical figuring by imagewise heating of a solvent
First Claim
1. A method of figuring a substrate surface comprising the steps of:
- contacting the substrate surface with an etchant solution, wherein an etch rate of the etchant solution increases with temperature; and
independently controlling the generation of a local thermal gradient in each of a plurality of selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution independent of other selected local regions, to imagewise etch the substrate surface in a parallel process.
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Abstract
A method and system of imagewise etching the surface of a substrate, such as thin glass, in a parallel process. The substrate surface is placed in contact with an etchant solution which increases in etch rate with temperature. A local thermal gradient is then generated in each of a plurality of selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution to imagewise etch the substrate surface in a parallel process. In one embodiment, the local thermal gradient is a local heating gradient produced at selected addresses chosen from an indexed array of addresses. The activation of each of the selected addresses is independently controlled by a computer processor so as to imagewise etch the substrate surface at region-specific etch rates. Moreover, etching progress is preferably concurrently monitored in real time over the entire surface area by an interferometer so as to deterministically control the computer processor to image-wise figure the substrate surface where needed.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method of figuring a substrate surface comprising the steps of:
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contacting the substrate surface with an etchant solution, wherein an etch rate of the etchant solution increases with temperature; and
independently controlling the generation of a local thermal gradient in each of a plurality of selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution independent of other selected local regions, to imagewise etch the substrate surface in a parallel process. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of figuring a substrate surface comprising the steps of:
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contacting the substrate surface with an etchant solution, wherein an etch rate of the etchant solution increases with temperature;
activating a plurality of selected heaters corresponding to a plurality of selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution, and chosen from an indexed array of heaters each for locally heating a corresponding local region of the boundary layer upon selective activation thereof; and
independently controlling by a computer processor the activation of each selected heater, to produce region-specific heating gradients in the selected local regions of the boundary layer and thereby imagewise etch the substrate surface at region-specific etch rates in a parallel process. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of figuring a substrate surface comprising the steps of:
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contacting the substrate surface with an etchant solution, wherein an etch rate of the etchant solution increases with temperature;
projecting region-specific electromagnetic radiation towards selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution to simultaneously locally heat the selected local regions independent of other selected local regions; and
independently controlling by a computer processor the region-specific electromagnetic radiation projected towards each selected local region, to simultaneously produce region-specific heating gradients in the boundary layer and thereby imagewise etch the substrate surface at region-specific etch rates in a parallel process. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of figuring a substrate surface comprising the steps of:
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contacting the substrate surface with an etchant solution, wherein an etch rate of the etchant solution increases with temperature;
generating a local thermal gradient in each of a plurality of selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution to imagewise etch the substrate surface in a parallel process, wherein the step of generating a local thermal gradient in each selected local region comprises locally heating each selected local region, whereby the selected local regions etch the substrate surface at higher etch rates than non-selected local regions; and
using a computer processor to independently control the local heating of each selected local region to produce region-specific heating gradients in the boundary layer and thereby imagewise etch the substrate surface at region-specific etch rates; and
interferometrically monitoring the substrate surface to deterministically control the computer processor and the region-specific etch rates. - View Dependent Claims (22)
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23. A method of figuring a substrate surface comprising the steps of:
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contacting the substrate surface with an etchant solution, wherein an etch rate of the etchant solution increases with temperature;
generating a local thermal gradient in each of a plurality of selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution to imagewise etch the substrate surface in a parallel process, wherein the step of generating a local thermal gradient in each selected local region comprises locally heating each selected local region by activating a plurality of selected heaters corresponding to the selected local regions and chosen from an indexed array of heaters each locally heating a corresponding local region of the boundary layer upon selective activation thereof, whereby the selected local regions etch the substrate surface at higher etch rates than non-selected local regions. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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26. The method as in 23,
wherein each heater of the indexed array comprises a pair of electrodes for, upon selective activation thereof, resistively heating a corresponding selected local region and producing a local ionic concentration gradient in the corresponding selected local region to locally etch the substrate surface.
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27. A method of figuring a substrate surface comprising the steps of:
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contacting the substrate surface with an etchant solution, wherein an etch rate of the etchant solution increases with temperature;
projecting electromagnetic radiation towards selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution to locally heat the selected local regions;
independently controlling by a computer processor the electromagnetic radiation projected towards each selected local region, to produce region-specific heating gradients in the boundary layer and thereby imagewise etch the substrate surface at region-specific etch rates in a parallel process; and
interferometrically monitoring the substrate surface to deterministically control the computer processor and the region-specific etch rates. - View Dependent Claims (28)
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Specification