NOVELTY - The laser doping apparatus (10) includes a beam shaper arranged to receive the laser beam and used for providing a shaped laser beam at an output such that the shaped laser beam has a uniform energy distribution in a selected direction orthogonal to the semiconductor substrate support. An optical scan head is arranged with respect to the laser source, beam shaper, and/or the semiconductor substrate to position the shaped laser beam in two dimensions along a surface of the semiconductor substrate.    USE - Direct laser doping apparatus for imparting a dopant into the surface of a substrate e.g. semiconductor substrate during fabrication of opto-electronic solid state device e.g. integrated circuit, solar cell, flat panel display, thin film head.    ADVANTAGE - The doping apparatus provides increased production throughput, lower downtime for maintenance, lower cost of ownership and greater flexibility of configuration and control to permit multiple doping recipes in a simple, easy to use, low operating cost system. The doping system eliminates the substrate damage caused by previous ion implantation and eliminates the need for subsequent processing steps to anneal or remove the damage to, for example, the silicon crystal structure of the silicon wafers used to make integrated circuits. The doping method overcomes the limitations of current ion implantation caused by non-uniform energy deposition, and more specifically the problem of high temperatures induced into the substrate during the doping process. The doping method eliminates the formation of the dense, carbon crust formed during ion implantation when high intensity ions compress and carbonize the top layer of the photoresist mask used to pattern the dopant ions into the silicon substrate. The apparatus is both environment friendly and energy efficient in light. The reliability and reproducibility of the apparatus is suitable for high volume manufacturing.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The drawing shows an isometric view of the laser doping apparatus.    Laser doping apparatus (10)    Upper enclosure (12)    Middle enclosure (14)    Lower enclosure (16)    Auto-docking station (18)