US Patent 7468506 Spot grid array scanning system

A method for scanning a surface, consisting of focusing an array of beams using optics having an axis, so as to irradiate a region of the surface intercepted by the axis, such that each beam irradiates a portion of a respective sub-region within the region. The method further includes moving at least one of the array and the surface so as to cause a translation of the surface relative to the axis in a first direction. During the translation in the first direction, each of the beams is scanned over the respective sub-region in a second direction, which is different from the first direction.