The requirements for the resolution of direct laser structuring are constantly growing and are now firmly in the sub-μm range. The most effective way to achieve such high resolution is the use of laser wavelengths in ultraviolet and deep ultraviolet (DUV) range. As the power of excimer and solid-state lasers continues to increase, not only indirect structuring, such as photolithography, but also direct ablation over large areas is becoming efficient. Still, efficient use of the available laser intensity is required to achieve high throughput of the nanostructuring tools. The contribution will discuss different approaches for sub-μm structuring with DUV radiation, including microscanners and proximity phase masks. The latter is a method that can provide sub-wavelength resolution while minimizing the system’s power loss. Unlike absorber-based masks that absorbs at least 50% of the incoming radiation, phase shift masks redistribute the energy with up to 90% total efficiency. Both one-dimensional and two-dimensional periodic patterns on 100 nm-scale can then be created over large areas, if illumination and process parameters are suitably chosen. The contribution will discuss the theoretical and practical limits of the technology and will demonstrate several selected applications of the technology on basis of high-power excimer and USP solid-state laser systems COMPEX and HyperRapid from Coherent.
Laser technologies have always been and will continue to be a pivotal innovation driver in various high-tech verticals. Mobile displays for the looming 5G world as well as the booming e-mobility market are to a large part enabled by the laser power and precision needed to process thinnest layers and finest structures otherwise not attainable. Recently, magnetic confinement fusion has entered the zero-carbon energy roadmap due to the commercial availability of high temperature superconducting (HTS) thin film material. This new material is now available in large quantities and enables considerably higher magnetic field strengths and thus the construction of many times smaller fusion reactors able to contribute to the zero-carbon climate goal. Laser technology is at the heart of processing the game changing HTStapes for the new generation of fusion magnets.
Pulsed laser deposition has evolved into a production technology for growing thin film materials with properties which are challenging to obtain by classical deposition methods such as sputtering or sol-gel deposition. Novel wafer based PLD system technology based on powerful excimer lasers allows universities, institutes and foundries to add 30+ new materials and material systems to their deposition portfolio enabling fabrication e.g. of electro-optical materials, transparent conductive oxides and perovskites. Dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric material depositions can also be performed in any desirable sequence and can run with a single wafer load-lock, cassette handler or integrated with pre-clean station as part of the Solmates cluster platform. Deposition results obtained with the latest 300 mm wafer platform will be discussed.
MicroLED displays are among the most promising technologies for very small and large displays soon. The market adoption strongly depends on costs of the display. Shrinking MicroLED sizes with additional throughput and yield improvements are the key to a wider spread usage of the technology. Laser Lift-Off, a release of III-V based MicroLED´s from the growth wafer, and laser-based mass transfer are two mandatory process steps within the MicroLED display process chain. A UV laser masked based high precision imaging system will be presented which is capable to process GaN based MicroLED´s down to a few microns. The flexible maskbased system can process single die´s, large fields, and selective patterns of LED dies. Process results are depending on the precision and alignment of the dedicated laser beam. The influence of beam-to-die alignment, energy densities, material combination, and contact versus non-contact transfer will be shown and discussed. Both LLO and transfer can be scaled to large field sizes to enable a high throughput processing that pushes the technology into reasonable production time scales. Beam shapes, process speed assumptions, and capable substrate sizes will be discussed. Finally, a flexible system concept will be presented that can cover both LLO and selective mass transfer with corresponding different energy densities. This system concept has a capability to process MicroLED displays for AR/VR but also larger formats e.g. tiles which can be combined to large MicroLED TV´s or commercial signage applications.
The relentless demand for smaller and lighter products with faster and more powerful processing capabilities continues to be the overarching trend across nearly every sector of the electronics market: from telecom systems to medical sensors, image processing, and of course smart phones and devices. Today, advanced package integration (API) is arguably the key technological enabler supporting this trend, with a focus on vertical stacking platform – so-called 2.5D and 3D architectures – or fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP) as preferred in high bandwidth memory (HBM). An example of a true 3D package is where two (or more) thinned chips are stacked on top of each other in the same molded package, such as several memory chips or the combination of a logic chip and a memory chip. Excimer laser structuring offers multiple advantages in advanced packaging applications including ablation of vias and trenches, seed layer removal, and debonding. This technology is proven to provide a cost advantage for both current and future packaging applications. Whereas lithographic patterning involves photographic exposure of a resist, the excimer laser pulses directly remove material with virtually no peripheral thermal effects. A proven means to increase achievable field size is overlaying time-synchronized combined beams. Therefore, a sensitivity analysis of applying 308-nm excimer laser double pulses using various pulse delays on the key ablation parameters has been conducted.
A novel UV line beam system for large area processing is introduced. The linear beam concept dispenses with movable components such as scanner optics. By using a fixed line beam with ns pulse duration and combining it with a 150 W excimer laser as the beam source a system with optimum reproducibility of the resulting layer modification has been created. Depending on the application, the excimer laser beam can be redirected into a high-resolution mask ablation system with rectangular field geometry. This machine’s modular concept can be used for a wide range of materials and laser-processes, especially for large area applications. Two different laser-material processes, thermal ablation and optical modification, are presented demonstrating the variety of the possible functionality of the system.
In industrial laser micro processing, throughput is as important as process quality. Treating large areas in minimum time is pivotal in achieving reduced unit costs in high-volume production. Excimer lasers meet the requirements for clean and precise structuring and enable the smallest structures in an efficient way. The latest technical developments in high power excimer lasers is bound to take cost-efficient UV-laser micro processing to the next level and bridges the gap between achievable precision and achievable throughput. New excimer laser developments and beam concepts together with latest performance data for upscaling both UV power and UV pulse energy will be the topic of this paper against the background of upcoming market trends and high volume applications.
Ongoing progress in mass analysis applications such as laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry of solid samples and ultraviolet photoionization mediated sequencing of peptides and proteins is to a large extent driven by ultrashort wavelength excimer lasers at 193 nm. This paper will introduce the latest improvements achieved in the development of compact high repetition rate excimer lasers and elaborate on the impact on mass spectrometry instrumentation. Various performance and lifetime measurements obtained in a long-term endurance test over the course of 18 months will be shown and discussed in view of the laser source requirements of different mass spectrometry tasks. These sampling type applications are served by excimer lasers delivering pulsed 193 nm output of several mJ as well as fast repetition rates which are already approaching one Kilohertz. In order to open up the pathway from the laboratory to broader market industrial use, sufficient component lifetimes and long-term stable performance behavior have to be ensured. The obtained long-term results which will be presented are based on diverse 193 nm excimer laser tube improvements aiming at e.g. optimizing the gas flow dynamics and have extended the operational life the laser tube for the first time over several billion pulses even under high duty-cycle conditions.
Average power scaling of 308nm excimer lasers has followed an evolutionary path over the last two decades driven by
diverse industrial UV laser microprocessing markets. Recently, a new dual-oscillator and beam management concept for
high-average power upscaling of excimer lasers has been realized, for the first time enabling as much as 1.2kW of
stabilized UV-laser average output power at a UV wavelength of 308nm. The new dual-oscillator concept enables low
temperature polysilicon (LTPS) fabrication to be extended to generation six glass substrates. This is essential in terms of
a more economic high-volume manufacturing of flat panel displays for the soaring smartphone and tablet PC markets.
Similarly, the cost-effective production of flexible displays is driven by 308nm excimer laser power scaling. Flexible
displays have enormous commercial potential and can largely use the same production equipment as is used for rigid
display manufacturing. Moreover, higher average output power of 308nm excimer lasers aids reducing measurement
time and improving the signal-to-noise ratio in the worldwide network of high altitude Raman lidar stations. The
availability of kW-class 308nm excimer lasers has the potential to take LIDAR backscattering signal strength and
achievable altitude to new levels.
Super-hard functional coatings are obtained by high power excimer laser based PLD. Diamond-like,
tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) is grown on substrates moderately heated to below 90°C inside a
vacuum chamber upon ablating a graphite target by means of a high pulse energy excimer laser at a
wavelength of 248 nm. The fast evaporation of the target material induced by the high photon energy of 5
eV, the short temporal width of 30 ns and the high fluence of the excimer laser pulses generates plume
species with a high degree of ionisation and high kinetic energies. As a consequence, the kinetic energies
resulting from excimer based PLD are significantly higher than those associated with the thermal
evaporation and the ion sputtering deposition methods. In fact, the mean kinetic energy of the atoms and
ions in the plume are in the range of 30 eV to 80 eV for fluencies of 5 J/cm2 to 20 J/cm2. Such large ontarget
UV fluences are easily provided by high energy excimer lasers such as the Coherent LPXpro and by
LSX laser models which can operate at output energies up to 1 J and average output powers up to 540 W.
High energy excimer lasers lend maximum flexibility to laser microprocessing, since virtually every
material is amenable to accurate, high resolution material ablation without subsequent post treatment. Due
to the UV photons provided with no up-conversion required as direct output by excimer lasers, output
powers of many hundred watts are easily achievable and are key to high throughput, and up-scaling
capability of manufacturing processes. In particular, the large flat-top excimer laser profile is well-suited
for most efficient parallel processing of two and three dimensional microstructures. Compact
micromachining concepts particularly suited for material ablation and surface activation will be
introduced.
Stable, high energy excimer lasers providing pulsed output energies ranging from 100 mJ up to over 1000 mJ in the ultraviolet region with photon energies as high as 5 eV (248 nm), 6.3 eV (193 nm) or 7.9 eV (157 nm) lend maximum flexibility to laser microprocessing, since virtually every material is amenable to accurate, high resolution material ablation without subsequent cleaning. Due to the UV photons provided with no up-conversion required as direct output by excimer lasers, output powers of many hundred watts are easily achievable and are key to high throughput, and up-scaling capability of manufacturing processes. Most important for reproducible production results is a temporally and spatially stable behavior of consecutive laser pulses as well as utmost lateral homogeneity of the on-sample energy density (fluence). These requirements constitute the superiority of excimer lasers over other pulsed UV laser sources such as lamp-pumped Nd:YAG lasers. Pulse-to-pulse stabilities of less than 1 %, rms as easily provided by excimer laser systems which cannot be achieved with frequency converted Nd:YAG. Laser systems. In particular, the large flat-top excimer laser profile is well-suited for most efficient parallel processing of two and three dimensional microstructures. Spectral properties, temporal pulse and laser beam parameters of state of the art UV excimer lasers and beam delivery systems will be compared with frequency converted, flash-lamp pumped Nd:YAG lasers.
Reproducible and sensitive elemental analysis of solid samples is a crucial task in areas of geology (e.g. microanalysis of
fluid inclusions), material sciences, industrial quality control as well as in environmental, forensic and biological studies.
To date the most versatile detection method is mass-spectroscopic multi-element analysis. In order to obtain reproducible
results, this requires transferring the solid sample into the gas-phase while preserving the sample's stoichiometric
composition.
Laser ablation in combination with Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is a proven powerful
technique to meet the requirements for reliable solid sample analysis. The sample is laser ablated in an air-tight cell and
the aerosol is carried by an inert gas to a micro-wave induced plasma where its constituents are atomized and ionized
prior to mass analysis.
The 193 nm excimer laser ablation, in particular, provides athermal sample ablation with very precise lateral ablation and
controlled depth profiling. The high photon energy and beam homogeneity of the 193 nm excimer laser system avoids
elemental fractionation and permits clean ablation of even transmissive solid materials such as carbonates, fluorites and
pure quartz.
Excimer lasers are unique ultraviolet laser sources ideally suited for a wide range of applications driving innovations in almost every branch of industry including microsystem manufacturing, flat panel display production and dense wavelength division and multiplexing to name a few. The success of fiber Bragg gratings in the last years is based on their unique properties which make them extremely valuable for numerous applications in optical telecommunication networks. Expectations for the continued growth of demand for internet services and more bandwidth show a promising future also for passive optical components. Components which serve not only one but several purposes have a good possibility to participate in this success proportionally. Excimer laser written fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) stabilize the frequency of laser diodes, flatten the non-linear gain of fiber amplifiers, compensate for the fiber's dispersion and filter
communication channels. Developments and optimization of 248 nm excimer laser systems for mass production environments are ongoing.
Ongoing progress in material research and processing industry is fueled to a large extent by the technique of pulsed laser deposition (PLD). With this powerful and versatile deposition method, multi-component target materials can be ablated and deposited onto a substrate to form functional layers with tailored physical properties. Monitoring of growth parameters such as thickness and surface roughness is mostly performed in-situ via electron diffraction or other diagnostic tools. High pulse energy excimer lasers with photon energies as high as 7.9 eV lend maximum flexibility to the technique of pulsed laser deposition since virtually every target material is amenable to excimer laser ablation and its subsequent stoichiometric transfer to a substrat. Spectral properties as well as recent technical advances in excimer lasers for thin film applications are shown in this paper.
As the most efficient UV laser sources excimer lasers are unique tools for the various fields of material processing. Essentially, the tight process windows fuel the need for better dose control during laser illumination and hence the demand for high repetition rate excimer lasers operating at comparably low pulse energies of only some 10 mJ. Compact, flexible excimer lasers offering high repetition rate-low energy and low cost of ownership pave the way to efficient mask writing and wafer inspection systems for chip manufacturing as well as to efficient testing of optical materials. Utilizing micro-mirror arrays, high-repetition rate-low energy excimer lasers are ideal for flexible direct-write material processing approaches e.g., in laser marking or cleaning. Moreover, medical applications such as refractive eye surgery currently using up to 200 Hz repetition rate will benefit from high-repetition rate excimer lasers offering reduced treatment times with excimer laser based systems with 500 Hz and even 1000 Hz in the near future.
Today the molecular fluorine (F2) laser emitting at a wavelength of 157 nm represents the strongest commercially available coherent light source in the vacuum-ultraviolet spectral range. Lambda Physik produces a broad variety of F2-Lasers which cover a wide range of output power (from less than 1 W to more than 20 W), repetition rate (from less than 100 Hz to more than 4 kHz) and single pulse energy (from less than 1 mJ to more than 30 mJ). The parameters of each of these kinds of F2-lasers are designed and suitable for specific fields of application. In the paper we will review the main parameters of these different types of F2-lasers, compare their special features and discuss the principle applications they are used for. The low energy, medium repetition rate is basically used for metrology and calibration tasks, the high energy or high repetition rate and high power F2-laser systems are mainly used for material investigations and in a growing extent for 157 nm-micromachining. Lithography tools use the high repetition rate, high power single-line F2-laser systems. All of these scientific or industrial applications take advantage of the unique properties of the 157 nm radiation, i.e. the ultra-short wavelength of emission and the very high photon energy of nearly 8 eV. Thus, very precise and fine microstructuring in the micrometer range is possible and the 157 nm optical lithography is on target for critical dimensions of integrated circuits below 70 nm. The short pulse duration and high photon energy also enables efficient and exactly located icroscopic ablation of most critical materials without thermal impact on the surrounding area. In the last part of the paper some recent results on F2-laser development and an outlook on future products will be given.
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