Amplitude improves the ablation efficiency onto Aluminum with CANUNDA-PULSE (micro-drilling)

Square holes drilling …

> Aluminium

> 20µm thick sheet

> 1030nm

> 0.64 mm³/W/min

… with a square top-hat

in the processing plane:

> 50µm width
> ± 100µm depth of field
> Shape preserved over ±20mm Field of View

Ablation efficiency x2

The partner

Amplitude is a French company and world leader in the design, development and marketing of femtosecond lasers for a wide range of scientific, medical and industrial applications.

The application

Percussion micro-drilling is usually performed using ultrashort, often femtosecond lasers. A series of laser pulses are directed at the same spot on the material until the desired thickness has been ablated. This laser process is athermal, the material is sublimated using ultra-high peak power pulses.

The issue

Current micro-drilling processes face the challenge of increasing high-power process yield, including improving ablation efficiency and quality by drilling fast, taper-free holes. Amplitude aims to address these challenges with laser beam shaping.

The CANUNDA-PULSE solution

CANUNDA-PULSE is a high quality top-hat beam shaper. Based on Cailabs’ patented MPLC technology, its completely reflective design was conceived to handle high-energy femtosecond pulses with great stability. Its mode-cleaning feature ensures efficient operation, even with unstable laser sources.

“The main defiance in using Gaussian beam profiles is to manage the energy which is deposited into the material but not contributing to the ablation. Top-hat beam shaping solves this problem. It is known for the increase of the efficiency of laser power use and significant reduction of heat affected zone.”

Konstantin Mishchik, Process Development Scientist, Amplitude

Industrial integration of CANUNDA-PULSE

CANUNDA-PULSE was used with two different femtosecond lasers supplied by Amplitude to perform percussion drilling and ablation on a 20 µm thick aluminum sheet. The objective of beam shaping was to increase the quality and yield of these micromachining processes.