Laser Material Processing for Microengineering Applications

The processing of materials via laser irradiation is presented in a brief survey. Various techniques currently used in laser processing are outlined and the significance to the development of space qualified microinstrumentation are identified. In general the laser processing technique permits the transferring of patterns (i.e. lithography), machining (i.e. with nanometer precision), material deposition (e.g., metals, dielectrics), the removal of contaminants/debris/passivation layers and the ability to provide process control through spectroscopy

A High-Average-Power Free Electron Laser for Microfabrication and Surface Applications

CEBAF has developed a comprehensive conceptual design of an industrial user facility based on a kilowatt ultraviolet (UV) (160-1000 mm) and infrared (IR) (2-25 micron) free electron laser (FEL) driven by a recirculating, energy recovering 200 MeV superconducting radio frequency (SRF) accelerator. FEL users, CEBAF's partners in the Lase Processing Consortium, including AT&T, DuPont, IBM, Northrop Grumman, 3M, and Xerox, are developing applications such as metal, ceramic, and electronic material micro-fabrication and polymer and metal surface processing, with the overall effort leading to later scale-up to industrial systems at 50-100 kW. Representative applications are described. The proposed high-average-power FEL overcomes limitations of conventional laser sources in available power, cost-effectiveness, tunability, and pulse structure

UV FEL light source for industrial processing

Short wavelength UV light is strongly absorbed by most materials, creating the opportunity to drive near-surface thermal or chemical processes. The resulting modifications have a wide range of prospective applications, but few have been developed because of the low capacity and high unit cost of light from present sources. We analyze the light source requirements for large-scale applications to polymers and metals. We describe meeting them with free electron laser whose design is described in a companion paper in this session. This machine will deliver 1.0 to 2.5 kW between 190nm and 350nm with options in the visible and IR, and serve to further develop FEL technology for much higher powered machines. We gratefully acknowledge support for this work from the Commonwealth of Virginia Center for Innovative Technologies and the U.S. Department of Energy