Other materials

Ceramics crack, semiconductors chip and organic materials char, each under a different kind of thermal load. Femtosecond laser pulses are over before heat leaves the focal volume, so ceramic is milled, silicon and GaAs wafers are cut clean, organics are machined without burnt edges, and dielectric surfaces are activated for metallization.

Material processing
Material processing Glass Metal Polymer Other materials
Other materials

Femtosecond laser cutting of FZ-Si wafer

The production of complex and customized optoelectronic devices and components often necessitates specifically shaped and milled chips. Traditional mechanical approaches usually end up in having limitations. They are restricted in shape due to the material’s tendency to cleave along specific crystallo- graphic directions, and they offer limited control over the process. Femtosecond lasers have pushed the boundaries in terms of smaller features, higher processing efficiency, and enhanced processing resolution compared to laser sources with longer pulse durations.

Float zone silicon wafer (FZ-Si (100), 0.4 mm thickness) was processed with FemtoLux 30 resulting in high processing quality – low heat affected zone and absence of damage on the bottom surface.

Manufacturing examples

Cutting of FZ-Si wafer.

Cutting of FZ-Si wafer.

Courtesy of FTMC.

Microscope image of processed FZ-Si wafer edge.

Microscope image of processed FZ-Si wafer edge.

Courtesy of FTMC.

Recommended products

FemtoLux
Industrial Femtosecond Lasers
  • 50 W / >300 µJ at 1030 nm
  • 20 W / >50 µJ at 515 nm
  • 10 W / >25 µJ at 343 nm
  • < 400 fs – 1 ps
  • Single shot to 4 MHz (AOM controlled)
  • MHz, GHz, MHz+GHz burst modes

Similar applications

50 µm depth groove formation in ceramic.
Femtosecond laser formation of grooves in ceramic

Ceramic is hard and brittle: mechanical processing presses on it with large forces and can crack the substrate. Femtosecond laser pulses form grooves without mechanical contact. Grooves 30, 50 and 70 µm deep were scribed at speeds up to 44.1 mm/s, and the 343 nm wavelength reduced the heat-affected zone from 8.23 µm to 4.88 µm.
Optical 3D profilometer image of milled alumina squares in different operational modes.
Ceramic processing with GHz burst

Femtosecond lasers mill ceramics precisely but slowly. GHz bursts raise the throughput: trains of pulses at GHz intra-burst repetition rates split one high-energy pulse into many smaller ones. With 92 pulses per burst, alumina milling throughput rose from 6.39 mm³/min in single-pulse mode to 10.38 mm³/min.
SEM image of a trench milled in GaAs under a layer of water.
Femtosecond processing of GaAs in air and water

Milling GaAs in ambient air leaves a band of debris redeposited along the trench walls. Under a layer of water the same process cuts deeper and cleaner: trench depth rose from 58 µm to 105 µm and the redeposition band shrank from 34 µm to 7.6 µm. Ablation efficiency was higher in all three regimes tested.
SSAIL technology on PI.
Selective Surface Activation Induced by Laser (SSAIL)

SSAIL is a new technology developed by Center for Physical Sciences and Technology and Akonner for writing electronic circuits directly onto the dielectric material.
Heat-sensitive organic material cutting.
Heat-sensitive organic material processing with femtosecond laser

Organic materials are typically very sensitive to induced heat, which can cause warping and burnt edges during processing. Femtosecond lasers are an excellent solution for these materials because their ultra-short pulse duration prevents significant heat transfer to the material’s lattice, ensuring high accuracy and quality processing.
All applications