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Picosecond laser, Laser, Laser micro machining
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| ps-laser applications Short overview: Applications of industrial picosecond lasers | |||||||||||
| Lasers are attractive manufacturing tools because they offer precision, speed and versatility, software controlled processes, and non-touch technology without force to the work piece and wear of the tool. LUMERA LASER pioneered the development of industrial picosecond lasers. They offer a new level of precision and versatility in microprocessing. Picosecond laser pulses achieve this new quality of micromachining because the short pulses with their high peak power density remove the material before thermal diffusion with undesirable side effects occurs. If a ps-laser pulse is appropriately focussed onto any material surface it will remove a material layer of the order of10 nm in a basically non-thermal process. The remaining material will not be heated; it will not develop micro cracks, burr or recast. Appropriately means that the energy density in the focus of a ps-laser laser pulse (-10 ps) is close above the threshold (in the order of 1 J/cm2) for this cold ablation process. An economic throughput is guaranteed due to the high repetition rate of LUMERALASER picosecond laser systems of up to 1 MHz. Picosecond lasers microstructure (groove, cut, drill, micromill, etc.) virtually any material with: • no thermal side-effects such as microcracks, burrs, or recast • lateral features as small as a few um • depthcontrolintheorderoflOnm • pulses-on-demand for easy integration into delivery systems | |||||||||||
| "cold" machining ofasnow flake into a Mo-foil | |||||||||||
| The focus diameter corresponds to the lateral resolution. Tighter focussing is possible with shorter wavelengths, which can be generated by frequency conversion ofthe IR laser beam (harmonics generation). Examples for industrial ps-laser micromachining can include: • Drilling small apertures or structures (for electrical, bio-medical or fluidic devices) into difficult machinable materials • micro-milling tiny moulds • structuring the surface of engine cylinder walls or turbines for lowerfriction • machining thermally sensitive materials (layers on semicon or solar components, or stents made of memory material with pharmaceutical coatings, organic layers in electronic etc.) • rounding hard metal tool edges for better cutting quality and longer life | |||||||||||
| — ps-laserapplication 100607©LUMERALASER | |||||||||||