Lasers for Material Processing in Advanced Manufacturing Applications

Abstract

Traditional "workhorse" lasers for industrial laser processing are carbon dioxide lasers, lamp-pumped Nd:YAG lasers, and to a less extent, argon and krypton ion lasers. These have been widely used in various industries, including welding, drilling, cutting, surface hardening, printing, and entertainment. In the past several years, new laser sources have become mature, reliable, and readily available for new applications in industrial materials processing; particularly noticeable are excimer lasers and high-power diode lasers as well as diode-pumped solid-state lasers. This paper concentrates on some novel applications of these new laser sources in "hi-tech" manufacturing of semiconductor and data-storage devices. © 1996 Optical Society of America