Q. What products does Silicon Light Machines offer?
A. Silicon Light Machines currently supplies the GLV modules to customers. There are two main types of the GLV modules: 1080 pixel module and Integrated High-Resolution module. The 1080 pixel module design can be modified to accommodate a desired wavelength between 355nm and 850nm. For now, the high-resolution model has 8192 addressable elements and can be used for UV applications. Silicon Light Machines also provides engineering services to customize an existing product or develop a unique product to meet your requirements.
Q. Where can I find a price list?
A. Silicon Light Machines aspires for perfect customer satisfaction and customizes a product to meet the customer requirements. Normally, we quote for a product after the specification is agreed upon. Since specification and price may differ from customer to customer, we do not have a price list.
Q. What do I need to do to operate Grating Light Valve properly?
A. The GLV requires an interface board to communicate with your system. In most cases, the customers prepare an I/F board, but Silicon Light Machines can provide a test board for evaluation purpose. The trickiest component you are required to prepare is probably illumination optics or a laser line generator. The GLV, which is a linear array, requires a narrow (~25um) and long (27mm~) line beam. If you are not familiar with such optics design, we strongly recommend you have sufficient discussion before purchasing a product.
Q. Does Silicon Light Machines offer an evaluation kit?
A. Yes, we can provide an evaluation kit that consists of a GLV module, an interface board and technical support.
Q. Can I use Grating Light Valve for display application?
A. Yes, we will be pleased to supply GLV products for display applications. In 2009, we reacquired the rights to GLV technology for display applications.
Q. How is GLV technology used in CTP print systems?
A. When used with a high power laser source, the GLV device acts as a very high-speed spatial light modulator - capable of writing several hundred spots simultaneously onto an offset printing surface. The advantage of this approach is that several hundred channels of information can be written to the printing plate simultaneously, instead of creating one "spot" at a time. The GLV device not only features hundreds of precisely-controllable elements, but also switches light very rapidly - enabling better, faster and cheaper computer-to-plate (CTP) solutions.
Q. How does the GLV device improve the throughput and image quality of print equipment?
A. The GLV device can simultaneously handle multi-channel operation, fast switching speeds and very high-power lasers. Together, these capabilities improve system throughput. In addition, the precise imaging spot that is formed on the offset plate by the GLV device is ideal for creating very high quality images.