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 formation of grooves in ceramic

Ceramics are popular dielectric materials known for thermal conductivity, electrical insulation, mechanical strength, and resistance to corrosion and wear. However, conventional mechanical processing methods require large forces that lead to crack formation and can break the substrate. Femtosecond lasers process hard and brittle materials like ceramics with high quality and accuracy.

FemtoLux was tested in the initial step of ceramic scribing: groove formation. A study compared scribing speeds and quality at the 1030, 515, and 343 nm wavelengths. To estimate the influence of shorter wavelengths, 3 mm long and 50 µm deep grooves were formed on the sample surface. Scribing speeds of 44.1 mm/s were achieved at 1030 nm, and the heat-affected zone was reduced from 8.23 µm to 4.88 µm at 343 nm. The required depth was controlled by tuning the pulse energy, with demonstrated depths of 30, 50, and 70 µm.

50 µm depth groove formation in ceramic.

50 µm depth groove formation in ceramic.

Courtesy of FTMC.

Profiles of formed groove

Profiles of 30, 50 and 70 µm depth grooves.

Profiles of 30, 50 and 70 µm depth grooves.

Courtesy of FTMC.

Optical 3D profilometer image of formed groove.

Optical 3D profilometer image of formed groove.

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

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.
Cutting of FZ-Si wafer.
Femtosecond laser cutting of FZ-Si wafer

Mechanical dicing follows silicon’s crystallographic cleave planes, so diced chips come out with straight edges only. Femtosecond pulses cut FZ-Si wafers along curved contours instead: a 0.4 mm float-zone wafer was cut with a low heat-affected zone and an undamaged bottom surface.
Copper circuit patterns on polyimide (PI).
Selective Surface Activation Induced by Laser (SSAIL)

SSAIL writes copper circuits directly onto dielectric surfaces: an ultra-short pulse laser draws the pattern, chemical activation follows it, and electroless plating deposits metal only on the lasered areas. Developed by FTMC and Akoneer, the process reaches trace widths down to 1 µm on PC/ABS, PMMA, PET, FR-4, Al2O3 ceramic, fused silica and silicon.
Cut edge of a heat-sensitive organic material.
Heat-sensitive organic material processing

Heat-sensitive organic materials warp and char when a cutting process leaves heat behind. Femtosecond pulses remove material before heat spreads into the lattice: thin organic sheets for medical applications were cut at 100 mm/s with 350 fs pulses, with kerf widths down to 14.38 µm and no charring on the cut edges.
All applications