EoW March 2008

english technology news

Fibre lasers leading the way

Dr Tony Hoult, of the SPI Lasers applications laboratory, is challenging the perception of the capabilities of near infra- red lasers using state-of-art fibre lasers. Areas such as plastic welding for the medical and mobile phone industries, scribing and cutting polymers for the automotive industry and ablation of thin films for the photovoltaic industry are showing excellent results when processed with a fibre laser. One of the most recent examples of the more surprising results produced by the applications lab is plastic welding, something not thought to be suitable for either the high brightness of fibre lasers or the beam characteristics. However, when tested by the applications lab, a careful manipulation of the laser beam has made it very easy to produce welds in polymers that are efficient, precise and time saving. Other examples include cutting polymers for the automotive industry, scribing and cutting alumina, and cutting and micro- machining of silicon. Also of real interest is the laser ablation of thin films for the photovoltaic industry.

In this case, using very high laser frequencies up to 500kHz for thin film removal produces very precise material removal. This means that the base material, be it glass, plastics or silicon, remains untouched when processed by one of the SPI lasers. These results come on the back of an announcement from the applications laboratory in September that when cutting silicon using a 200W CW-M 1070nm fibre laser, cutting speeds of

Dr Tony Hoult at the Rofin Station

▲

up to 6m/min on 200µm polycrystalline silicon were readily achieved. SPI Lasers is expecting the results produced by the applications lab to continue to expand the perceived capabilities of the fibre lasers. SPI Lasers – UK Fax : +44 1489 779698 Email : info@spilasers.com Website : www.spilasers.com

54

EuroWire – March 2008