Table of Contents
Advantages of Fiber Lasers in Micromachining
Over the last years, the fiber laser technology and its potential have been sparking the interest of laser manufacturers, as well as researchers and industrial users. Lasers have an excellent beam quality, providing observable advantages and enhancements in high precision and material processing at the micro scale.
Micromachining is concerned with making small characteristic features using such ordinary machining operations as drilling, cutting, scribing, and slotting—but on a smaller scale. There is no official scale to identify when an operation is micromachining, but a golden rule is that you can see the results, but without seeing the details.
Laser Parameters and Process Capabilities
Up-to-date laser micromachining techniques are used in the automobile and medical industries, the production of semiconductors, and solar cell processing. Lasers for micromachining suggest a wide range of wavelengths, pulse width (from femtoseconds to microseconds), and repetition frequency (from a single pulse to Megahertz). These values allow micromachining with high resolution in depth and lateral dimensions. The sphere of micromachining consists of manufacturing methods like drilling, cutting, welding, ablation, and material surface texturing, where it is possible to attain very fine surface structures ranging in the micrometer.
Cost Efficiency and Performance Benefits
Nowadays, there is a new innovative micromachining technology, including advanced laser markers with superior beam quality. It is being used to achieve results similar to traditional machining technologies, but cheaper, faster, and more flexible.
Recent developments in the use of a fiber laser marker for micromachining can create desired features not normally associated with this equipment. The major benefit of this approach is that fiber laser markers are two to three times less expensive than standard equipment used for micromachining.
The fiber laser micromachining technology can be used for a wide variety of applications, such as selective plating removal for solder barrier, solar cell scribing and hole drilling, hole drilling of stainless steels for medical hypo tubes and fluid flow control systems, and cutting of sub-0.02in.-thick metals for fast part prototyping.