Efficiency and Throughput Improvements Using Diode Pumped Solid State Lasers

description

All high volume laser manufacturing processes demand high throughput, improved accuracy, and minimal thermal damage to the target material. Diode pumped solid state (DPSS) Q-switched nanosecond lasers are being used routinely today for many semiconductor & microelectronics and solar cell manufacturing processes. Spectra Physics has been offering variety of DPSS lasers for such processes for more than two decades. These lasers offer low noise, high stability, and reliability required for a robust manufacturing process. Efficient use of the available energy from a laser source is important to achieve maximum material removal for the laser material processing applications. Especially, with availability of short pulse width, high energy per pulse, and high repetition rate pulsed lasers it is necessary to deposit optimal amount of energy to achieve most efficient ablation and removal of material with minimal heat affected zone. Examples of how to improve material removal efficiency, throughput, and quality of machining for LED scribing, Silicon machining, and some of the solar cell manufacturing processes using Spectra Physics new lasers in combination with efficient optical beam delivery systems are described.

presenter(s)

Rajesh (Raj) S. Patel has accumulated 23 years of experience in the laser material processing field. He is currently a Director of Strategic Marketing and Applications at Spectra Physics, a division of Newport Corporation. Prior to working at Spectra Physics he has worked in various engineering and senior management positions at IBM, Aradigm, and IMRA. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has worked with various lasers for developing applications in microelectronics, semi-conductor, bio-medical, medical device, photovoltaic, and photonic industry. He has authored 26 U.S. patents and published and presented more than 70 technical papers and articles related to laser processing, optics, and mask technology. He is an active member of Laser Institute of America (LIA), SPIE, and OSA and was elected to serve as a President of LIA for year 2009.