Application Note: Femtosecond Micromachining Examples

By IMRA America, Inc.

Femtosecond lasers have significant advantages for micromachining applications. Due to the high peak power and short pulse duration, femtosecond laser pulses result in clean ablation with minimal thermal damage, shock-affected-zone, debris, or recast. The unique physics behind this athermal ablation (also called "cold ablation") are described in numerous publications and also in the IMRA Technical Notes section. This clean ablation process allows extremely precise machining of micro-sized or even sub-micron sized structures by either direct-write or areal exposure techniques. Here, we outline some specific examples of micromachining applications which touch a number of important technology areas as diverse as electronics and automotive.