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Technology Stocks : Presstek -- Stock of the Decade?? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NEIL MACK who wrote (10053)	10/15/1998 8:19:00 PM
From: SG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11098

Number 24 in 24 months United States Patent 5,822,345 Sousa, et. al. Oct. 13, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Diode-pumped laser system and method Abstract A laser system for imaging graphic-arts constructions avoids the need to demagnify a divergent beam by using the output of a semiconductor or diode laser to optically pump a laser crystal, which itself emits laser radiation with substantially less beam divergence. A preferred implementation utilizes, as a pumping source, at least one laser device that emits in the IR, and preferably near-IR region, to image ablative or transfer-type printing members. The output of the pumping source is provided to the laser crystal via a focusing lens arrangement. The output of the laser crystal, in turn, is focused onto the surface of a recording medium to perform the imaging function. Crystal excitation and decay times are minimized by continuously maintaining the pumping source at a bias power level, which keeps the crystal at a continuous, baseline power level just short of lasing or imaging; and then selectively and intermittently increasing power to the pumping source to cause the crystal to lase (or lase at higher power) in an imagewise pattern. By selectively varying the pulse width within certain limits, it is possible to obtain image dots of different sizes while retaining a round dot shape. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Inventors: Sousa; John G. (Hudson, NH); Foster; Josh (Nashua, NH); Mueller; Wayne (Londonderry, NH). Assignee: Presstek, Inc. (Hudson, NH). Appl. No.: 676,470 Filed: Jul. 8, 1996