High speeds and high versatility are the main benefits of laser micromachining when it comes to drilling and making holes. Micro-drilling has two distinct laser processes as with cutting: fusion drilling with pulsed lasers and additional gas support – and vaporization-induced melt ejection, such as with q-switched solid-state lasers. By choosing the proper wavelength and power density of the laser beam, almost all solid materials such as metals, semiconductors, plastics, ceramics, diamonds, etc. can be laser-drilled.
Various Methods for Laser Drilling
For selective roughening of surfaces for gluing and coating processes, pulse drilling of holes at a depth of some microns is used. Single-pulse methods may be used for through holes in small workpiece thicknesses.
For thicker materials, percussion drilling is the first option and can be accomplished by applying several laser pulses with the appropriate depth. A combined drilling-cutting method or the multi-pass method is used for trepanning drilling for large diameters.
Laser drilling of silicon wafers by Laserod creates virtually no micro cracks or edge melting that could weaken the cell during further processing. Contacted solar cells on the rear side expand the solar-active surface and thereby cell output. Current through-plating technologies include the trepanning of some hundreds of holes with a diameter of up to 500 μm (MWT technology) or percussion drilling of many thousands of 65 μm (EWT technology) holes in each cell.
The EWT technology can achieve throughput levels of 4,000 holes/sec during this time-critical processing stage and the MWT system can achieve up to 100 holes/sec. Laserod Technologies offers some of the best lasers cutting services in California and also specializes in drilling holes small to large by the laser drilling methods of percussion and trepanning.
Laserod Technologies is one of the industry’s commanding experts in laser micromachining of polymers & other substrates for microscale applications. Our high pulse femtosecond and picosecond laser micromachining are uniquely suited for microscale-polymer machining for many applications. For all kinds of grooving, slotting, or scribing of thin materials, metals, and polymers, contact Laserod today at 1-888-991-9916 / 1-310-340-1343 for projects and inquiries!
