POSITIONING, FOCUSING AND MONITORING OF GAS PHASE SELECTIVE BEAM DEPOSITION

摘要

An apparatus for selectively depositing a layer of material from a gas phase to produce a part comprising a plurality of deposited layers. The apparatus includes a computer (50) controlling energy beam (46) (laser), to direct energy into a chamber containing the gas phase to produce photodecomposition or thermal decomposition of said phase and selectively deposit material within the boundaries of the cross-sectional regions of the part. For each cross section, the aim of the laser beam is scanned (48) over a target area (26) to deposit material within the boundaries of the cross section. Each subsequent layer is joined to the preceding layer to produce a part. The present invention further contemplates an n-degree of freedom positioning apparatus for positioning a target outer layer (42) and a detecting apparatus which can non-intrusively detect the position and thickness of the deposited layer, both of which are close looped into a computer to produce the desired part.