Ultrafast Laser Processing of Brittle Materials-ShangHai RunQia Electronics Technology Co.,Ltd.

Ultrafast Laser Processing of Brittle Materials

Main Types of Brittle Materials

The range covers mobile phone camera protective covers, glass back covers, automotive rearview mirrors, instrument covers, optical lenses, OLED flexible screens, as well as glass, sapphire, ceramics and other brittle materials.

Principle of Laser Processing for Hard and Brittle Materials

Laser processing replaces traditional mechanical machining with laser beams, featuring high precision, fast cutting speed, no restriction on cutting pattern shape, and low processing cost.The laser beam is focused by a focusing lens and then irradiated onto the workpiece surface. The high energy density of the laser instantly vaporizes or melts the area irradiated by the focused spot on the workpiece. Meanwhile, auxiliary gas blowing removes slag and powder, forming smooth narrow slits.Since the processing head does not make direct contact with the material during operation, the workpiece surface is hardly scratched, and subsequent post-processing is generally unnecessary.

In fact, high-end manufacturing extensively adopts non-metallic materials, including soft materials, thermoplastics, heat-sensitive materials, ceramics, semiconductors, glass and other brittle materials. Laser processing of these materials imposes stringent requirements on beam characteristics, ablation degree and material damage control, demanding micro-nano ultra-precision machining. Conventional infrared lasers often fail to meet such requirements, making ultraviolet lasers an ideal alternative.

Ultrafast Laser Processing of Glass

Glass is a widely used material in daily life, ranging from water cups, wine glasses and containers to glass ornaments. Pattern fabrication on glass has long been a technical challenge, and traditional processing methods lead to a high glass breakage rate.Ultraviolet lasers are highly suitable for surface marking and patterning on glass, enabling ultra-fine manufacturing. UV laser marking overcomes the drawbacks of traditional methods such as low machining accuracy, difficult pattern drawing, workpiece damage and environmental pollution. With unique processing advantages, it has become a preferred solution for glass product manufacturing and is regarded as essential processing equipment in the wine glass, craft gift and related industries.

Ultrafast Laser Processing of Ceramics

Ceramic materials are widely used in construction, tableware and decorative products, and are also extensively applied in electronic products and equipment.Mobile phone manufacturers have launched ceramic back covers, ceramic inserts, ceramic substrates, ceramic packaging bases, ceramic cover plates for fingerprint recognition systems and other components, which are widely applied in mobile communication, optical communication and electronic product fields. These ceramic components require exquisite fabrication, and UV laser cutting is currently the most optimal choice.

Ultrafast Laser Wafer Dicing

Sapphire substrates feature high surface hardness, making them difficult to cut with conventional cutter discs. Traditional cutting causes severe tool wear, low yield, and a cutting path width over 30 μm, which reduces usable area and lowers product yield.Driven by the sapphire and white LED industries, the demand for sapphire substrate wafer dicing has grown sharply, raising higher requirements for production capacity and yield qualification rate.UV laser dicing of silicon wafers achieves high-precision and smooth cutting, greatly improving the finished product yield. With an ultra-high precision of 0.02 mm, UV lasers fully meet the demand for precise cutting. For on-demand cutting, precise power control delivers an extremely smooth cutting surface, with processing speed far higher than manual machining. All parameters are fully digitally displayed and can be accurately adjusted via computer, offering higher intuitiveness and accuracy, while being much easier to operate than manual cutting.

Ultrafast Laser Processing of Silicon Wafers

The application of short-wavelength (157–248 nm) excimer lasers and ultraviolet DPSS lasers has improved die yield, and verified that laser technology is superior to traditional diamond scribing processes.The kerf width (material loss during scribing) of UV laser processing is narrower than that of other technologies. Combined with front-end manufacturing processes, UV laser technology increases the number of qualified dies separated from a single wafer.

In the process of UV laser silicon wafer dicing, large-size silicon wafers are firstly divided into standard specifications such as 6-inch, 8-inch, 12-inch and 18-inch. The wafer chips are then cut into individual small dies for subsequent packaging into semiconductor components.This manufacturing process relies on UV laser dicing machines, which mainly use objective lenses as spot focusing mirrors and adopt high-density, high-energy laser beams to perform UV laser scribing on silicon wafers.

Solution