Treatment of skin by spatial modulation of thermal heating

1. An apparatus for treating skin comprising:

a source of a beam of radiation;

a modulator receiving the beam of radiation and forming a modulated spatial profile of the beam including a first plurality of first regions at a first fluence and a second plurality of second regions at a second fluence, the first fluence being greater than the second fluence, each first region being spaced from an adjacent first region by a respective second region; and

a device for delivering the beam of radiation to a target region of skin to cause a zone of thermal injury including a lateral pattern of varying depths of thermal injury distributed along the target region, the lateral pattern including at least one first sub-zone of a first depth of thermal injury laterally adjacent to at least one second sub-zone of a second depth of thermal injury,

wherein (i) the first depth is greater than the second depth, (ii) the at least one first sub-zone of the first depth and the at least one second sub-zone of the second depth extend from a surface of the target region of the skin to form a substantially continuous surface thermal injury, and (iii) the at least one first sub-zone of the first depth and the at least one second sub-zone of the second depth are substantially heated to at least a critical temperature to cause the thermal injury.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a cooling system for controllably cooling at least a portion of the target region of skin, to control the thermal injury within the target region.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a cooling system for cooling the target region of skin to produce at least one first region at a first temperature and at least one second region at a second temperature, the first temperature being greater than the second temperature, the at least one first region corresponding to the at least one first sub-zone, and the at least one second region corresponding to the at least one second sub-zone.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a cooling system for cooling the target region of skin to produce at least one first region cooled to a first depth and at least one second region cooled to a second depth, the first depth being less than the second depth, the at least one first region corresponding to the at least one first sub-zone, and the at least one second region corresponding to the at least one second sub-zone.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the source of a beam of radiation provides a beam of radiation with spatially varying intensity; with spatially varying exposure time or pulse duration and with spatially varying wavelengths.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein certain regions of the beam of radiation include a more skin penetrating wavelength and other regions of the beam of radiation include a less skin penetrating wavelength.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the beam of radiation includes spatially varying wavelengths with strong water absorption interspersed with wavelengths with strong blood absorption and wherein the beam of radiation when delivered to a target region of the skin is configured to cause a zone of thermal injury including a lateral pattern of varying depths.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the modulator delivers the beam of radiation to a target region of the skin to form a two-dimensional lateral pattern of varying depths of thermal injury and wherein the two-dimensional lateral pattern includes a plurality of sub-zones of a first depth of thermal injury adjacent to a plurality of sub-zone of a second depth of thermal injury.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the apparatus includes at least one of a group of energy sources consisting of an incoherent light source, a coherent light source, a solid state laser, a diode laser, a fiber coupled diode laser array, an optically combined diode laser array, and/or a high power semiconductor laser.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein at least two energy sources are used together to effect a skin treatment and wherein one of the energy sources is an incoherent source to provide a first beam of radiation and a coherent source to provide a second beam of radiation.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the modulator, which forms a spatially modulated beam of radiation is one of a group consisting of a lens, a micro lens array, a system of lenses, a diffractive optic in combination with a lens, an acousto-optic modulator and an optical device capable of varying the fluence of the beam of radiation.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the modulator modulates a single beam to form a plurality of discrete beams.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:

an energy source configured to provide the beam of radiation;

a delivery system configured to deliver the beam of radiation to a target area of the skin,

wherein the delivery system includes a fiber with a circular cross-section; and

a handpiece including an optical system to direct the beam of radiation to the target area of the skin.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the handpiece includes a spacer to space the delivery system from the skin.