PicoMaster – Innovation Gets Its Just Reward

The PicoMaster-H and PicoMaster XF-H direct laser writers of Raith Laser Systems (formerly 4PICO BV) have a pedigree going back to the days of CD and DVD mastering. Today, the company’s mastering systems are used to make holograms, and other optically variable devices, for the document security, brand authentication, luxury packaging, and product embellishment industries.

Commercial holograms first came to prominence using the analogue laser interference technique, made famous on projects such as the cover of National Geographic magazine and the security holograms for Mastercard and Visa.

This analogue technique, which requires a high skill level and attention to detail, progressed in the early 1990s with the introduction of computer-automated mastering systems, enabling the holographic industry to grow even further.

M2 Engineering BV was founded in 2004 to build CD and DVD mastering systems, and was renamed in 2010 to 4Pico BV. At that time, due to the rise of music and video streaming, the market for CD/ DVD mastering systems started to falter and so 4Pico began to consider other applications. In 2012, a customer of 4Pico asked if they could use the same technology to build a machine to create other kinds of micro-structured surfaces, and so they built a prototype and named it the PicoMaster.

CD/DVD mastering systems expose onto a rotating photoresist plate. However, for other applications, the plate needed to move linearly in the X and Y directions. This presented several engineering challenges, particularly as the plate was required to move at 400mm per second whilst making 10 million modulated exposures per second, ie. an exposure every 40nm.

The first tests involved making simple diffraction gratings, which proved highly efficient. This gave the company the idea to use its system for holography, and before too soon systems were being shipped to various labs aroud the world.

In 2020, Spatial Imaging became the exclusive worldwide distributer of the system (excluding China). The system has continued to evolve, with the latest version being released last year, complete with a new hybrid auto-focus system.

The PicoMaster, with its PicoHLD, hologram and Fresnel lens design and composition software, is a purpose- built direct laser writing system. It is available for the origination of security holograms, OVDs, DOVIDs, computergenerated holograms, diffractive patterns, Fresnel lenses, Fresnel ‘bas-relief’ images, achromatic images, micro-mirror and micro-lens arrays, and the many other types of 2.5D, greyscale, micro- structured optical surfaces used for holographic applications.

Bringing us up to date, Raith is proud to announce that the PicoMaster has won the International Hologram Manufacturers Association award for ‘Best Innovation in Holographic Technology’, presented online at The Holography Conference™ – an accolade that acknowledges the company’s continuing commitment to innovation.