Laser materials processing has been used increasingly over the wide area of electronic industries, especially for drilling microvias in printed circuit boards, and poly-silicon annealing for thin film transistor of liquid crystal display. Intensity distribution of laser beam is usually a non-uniform gaussian profile. Therefore, the demand for uniform intensity distribution is rising rapidly in some applications of heat processing. To obtain higher uniformity, beam homogenizer of a diffractive optical element (DOE) has recently been developed and introduced to some promising applications. Through the improvement of optical design algorithms and micro-fabrication techniques of a phase pattern of DOE, it becomes possible to convert a non-uniform gaussian distribution not only into a simple distribution like a square and a line but also into a complicated distribution like a distribution of printed circuit pattern. In this study, we introduce a design and fabrication result of beam shaper of DOE that can convert a gaussian distribution into the distribution of a printed circuit pattern, and present the possibility and the point at issue of new laser material processing by using such optics.
Laser materials processing has been used increasingly over the wide area of electronic industries, especially for drilling microvias in printed circuit boards, and poly-silicon annealing for thin film transistor of liquid crystal display.
To increase a processing speed, it has been developed a beam splitting element of a diffractive optical element (DOE).
And the other hand, to obtain higher uniformity, because the intensity distribution of laser beam is usually a non-uniform gaussian profile, beam homogenizer of a DOE has recently been developed and introduced to some promising applications.
Through the improvement of optical design algorithms, micro-fabrication techniques of a phase pattern of DOE and new method of optical system, it enables to combine its beam splitting function and homogenizing function. It can produce the simultaneous multi-spot homogenized beam.
In this investigation, we introduce a concrete design and fabrication result of multi-spot beam homogenizing system for SHG-YAG laser that can convert a gaussian distribution into the plural number of uniformity intensity distribution, and present the possibility of new laser material processing by using such optics.
The demand for uniform intensity distribution is rising rapidly in the field of thermal processing. In this study we propose beam homogenizers with aspheric lenses or diffractive optical elements (DOE) that can convert a non-uniform Gaussian distribution into a top-hat-shaped uniform intensity distribution. The circular beam homogenizer consists of two aspheric lenses. And we propose several types of beam homogenizer, namely, rectangular and linear using DOE technology. Especially, we present a spot array generation homogenizer that can anneal several points simultaneously. This paper suggests possibilities of advance laser optics for new types of laser material processing.
Laser processing is now being used increasingly in the area of electronics, especially, for drilling micro holes in printed circuit. But the intensity distribution of laser beam mainly based on Gaussian is not uniform. Therefore, the demand for uniform intensity distribution is rising rapidly in the field of heat processing. To obtain higher uniformity, attempts must be made to convert non-uniform Gaussian distribution into top-hat shaped uniform intensity distribution for smoothly bending laser beams. In this study the authors propose an aspheric beam homogenizer made from ZnSe that can convert non-uniform Gaussian distribution into top-hat shaped uniform intensity distribution. The ZnSe beam homogenizer consists of two aspheric lenses. First one converts Gaussian profile to uniform irradiation, and second one performs phase matching. The authors design this optical component with a special method based on wave optics. In the design, the authors define the target intensity distribution as the super-Gaussian shaped one instead of completely uniform top-hat shaped one. Compared with the homogenizers of traditional design, the newly designed homogenizer achieved 70% increase in the uniformity of signal intensity even after propagation. The paper reports the measured intensity distribution after propagation from the beam homogenizer with high power CO2 laser.
ZnSe Diffractive Optical Element (DOE) is one of the advanced optics which utilizes the optical diffraction phenomena by fabricating a micron order pattern on polished mirror-like surface of ZnSe polycrystal substrate. Various applications for a carbon dioxide (CO2) laser material processing such as beam-splitting, beam-shaping and beam-homogenizing are available. The micro pattern of ZnSe DOE is fabricated by the photolithography and reactive ion etching (RIE) technique. Its optical property is highly dependent on the depth precision of microfabricated pattern. In RIE by using BCl3 as the etchant gas we have achieved an etching technique to maintain the smooth surface of the ZnSe polycrystal with minimal etching rate dependency on the crystal orientation of each crystal grain. The surface roughness is 2nm Ra before etching and 5 nm Ra after about 4 microns depth etching. This good roughness brings better depth precision. With these etching technique beam-splitting ZnSe DOE with less than 10% intensity uniformity of splitted beams is successfully obtained and it can be put to use for practical CO2 laser hole drilling.
We have developed a new design of advanced optics for processing high-power laser material. We introduce the concept of DOE (Diffractive Optical Elements) for high power CO2 lasers ((lambda) =10.6micrometers ). The superior functionality of DOE means that it could become the new standard in optics for next generation devices. Here we describe the design of our DOE technology using scalar theory and micro fabrication using photolithography and RIE (Reactive Ion Etching). We also present results of our ZnSe-DOE technology, mainly focusing on a novel spot-array generator.
We have developed a new design of advanced optics for processing high-power laser material. We introduce the concept of DOE for high power CO2 lasers. The superior functionality of DOE means that it could become the new standard in optics for next generation devices. Here we describe the design of our DOE technology using scalar theory and micro fabrication using photolithography and RIE. We also present results of our ZnSe-DOE technology, mainly focusing on a novel spot-array generator.
A simple novel probe for Scanning Near-field Optical Microscope (SNOM) is proposed. The probe consists of a small protrusion on a micro resonator. The resonator and protrusion is a spherical micro sphere with diameter of 50-70 μm, 1.5 μm, respectively. The resonator is a polystyrene latex sphere and the protrusion is a polymethyl methacrylate sphere. The s-polarized laser (Ti:Sapphire laser) beam, which illuminates the resonator through an evanescent wave, can be tuned to the resonant frequencies. The resonance occurred in the sphere is a traveling wave resonance, which is called MDRs (Morphology Dependent Resonances) or WGMs (Whispering Gallery Modes). The internal resonant wave could generate an intensive evanescent field on the surface of the resonator. The small protrusion on the resonator combines with the evanescent field and could acts as a high sensitive probe for SNOM. A clear image of the protrusion illuminated by the evanescent field on the resonator was observed with the cooled CCD detector. The brightness of the image of the protrusion depends on the laser wavelength. The optical characteristics of the resonant probe is also studied by a Finite-Difference Time- Domain method.
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