Femtosecond (fs) laser becomes more popular in precise material procesing due to the limited heat affected zone (HAZ) over longer laser pulses. In this paper, micro-hole drilling in ambient air with fs fiber laser at 1030 nm is presented. Micro holes were fabricated in both transparent (polymer and glass), and non-transparent materials (metal and tissue). A scanning electron microscopy is used to investigate the hole quality. Both percusiion drilling and trepanning drilling methods were evaluated and compared. High quality micro holes with no visible micro-cracks were demonstrated. Micro-hole drilling in hard and soft tissues with no collateral thermal damage is observed. This study can be extended to MEMS, microfluidic, and micro surgery applications.

Date Published: 13 March 2013
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 8607, Laser Applications in Microelectronic and Optoelectronic Manufacturing (LAMOM) XVIII, 86070K (13 March 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2004888

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8607:
Laser Applications in Microelectronic and Optoelectronic Manufacturing (LAMOM) XVIII
Xianfan Xu; Guido Hennig; Yoshiki Nakata; Stephan W. Roth, Editor(s)