Laser drilling becomes of increasing importance when hole diameter is in the range of 10 to 50 μm, for which conventional alternative approaches are becoming difficult and cost inefficient. Furthermore, it is viewed as the technique of choice for a number of composite materials and hard materials which are not readily processed at the microscopic level by contact mechanical tools. We have demonstrated that suitable experimental conditions are capable of producing microholes with record aspect-ratio (up to 600) in pure polymers like PET, PI, PC, PS, PMMA, PEEK, ... For example holes of diameter typically 30 μm can be as long as 18 mm, depth at which the drilling rate is getting nearly zero and the profile stationary. Other materials (metals, ceramics) which can be similarly laser microdrilled do not exhibit such very high aspect-ratio. The mechanisms of the drilling process have been studied in details and an original analytical model has been constructed recently. The various experimental results, obtained with the KrF laser, will be reviewed with emphasis on the parameters leading to formation of good holes with high aspect-ratio. For the application it is also important to note that such high values of aspect-ratio are obtained with regular configuration of the KrF laser giving a standard divergence of 3 mrad. However as shown by the model there is still room for improvement by using a beam with a lower divergence (theoretical limit s 0.2 mrad). Further experimental work is now in progress.

Date Published: 8 October 2004
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 5662, Fifth International Symposium on Laser Precision Microfabrication, (8 October 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.596295

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5662:
Fifth International Symposium on Laser Precision Microfabrication