Drilling
Precision drilling of the nozzle holes.
Metal drilling.
Courtesy of Lasea.
Laser drilling of metal alloys offers exceptional quality and precision for a wide range of applications, such as fuel delivery systems, various filters, and functional surfaces. Key advantages of femtosecond laser drilling include fast processing speed, high accuracy, and excellent surface finish.
Notable features are the absence of melting or thermal impact on surrounding areas, hole diameters ranging from micrometers to centimeters, precise taper angle control, customizable hole geometries, and adjustable processing parameters available upon request.
Example of glass drilling with densely packed holes.
Courtesy of Workshop of Photonics.
Example of glass drilling with densely packed holes.
Courtesy of Workshop of Photonics.
Glass is an inorganic, solid material that is brittle yet hard at the same time. Numerous applications involve glass drilling, and this delicate material is used in customer electronics, medical, automotive, aerospace, and many other industries.
Processing (cutting or micro-structuring) tempered or non-tempered, flexible, or thick glass with high precision can be a challenging task. Mesh glass wafers and wafers for wafer-level packaging (WLP) require various shapes of through-holes with high aspect ratio channels in the same wafer.
Femtosecond lasers are ideal for both selective laser etching (SLE) and 5-axis drilling heads. The creation of high aspect ratio holes in glass substrates is gaining significance, particularly in the semiconductor industry. Femtosecond lasers enable the fabrication of Through Glass Vias (TGVs) with minimal taper and high aspect ratios, delivering superior quality with features such as minimal chipping, no cracking, and smooth inner hole walls.
Hole array produced in a 100 µm thick stainless-steel sheet at a rate of 1 ms/hole.
Stainless steel sheet surface profile after drilling (left). Photos of top surface hole (diameter 30 µm) and bottom surface hole (diameter 3 µm).
Rapid drilling of conical holes is possible in various materials (polymer compounds, ceramics, steel alloys, transparent crystalline, and amorphous materials) using the BiBurst feature of the CARBIDE lasers.
An array of conical holes is demonstrated, with each hole produced in less than 1 ms in 100 µm thick stainless steel (AISI 304) sheets, featuring an entrance diameter deviation of 100 nm and an exit diameter (RMS) deviation of 400 nm.
By combining the Fast Energy Control (FEC) feature and adjusting the burst settings (number of sub-pulses within the burst, individual energy of the sub-pulses, and the temporal gap between the sub-pulses), the dimensions of the conical shape can be tailored to specific application needs.
Large hatched blastocyst captured and gently held for easy and harmless puncture; biopsied cells are expressed through the biopsy port (top). Optical image of a glass needle with a 5 µm laser-drilled biopsy port.
Courtesy of GeneSearch Inc. and Workshop of Photonics.
Drilled biopsy probes are used to put through or take a small sample of tissue into or from cells for easy and harmless puncture. Therefore high-accuracy biopsy probe drilling is crucial for precise medical procedures.
The GeneSearch Embryo Cradle is the new tool for embryo manipulation, allowing embryo penetration and biopsy at all stages up to the time for implantation in the uterus. After collecting a few cells for DNA analysis, even as part of the same procedure, the device can easily remove blastocoel fluid to optimize embryo freezing.
One of the main components — the glass biopsy probe — was drilled by the Workshop of Photonics using Light Conversion’s femtosecond laser. Probe diameters vary from 12 µm to over 20 µm, and biopsy ports range from 5 µm to over 10 µm in diameter. The biopsy port is a clean, sharp-edged, laser-drilled hole located near the probe’s tip, highlighting the precision of biopsy probe drilling.
