Laser ablative micro-machining and its applications for rapid fabrication of micro-fluidic components Available to Purchase

Recent developments in using high-quality laser beam for micro-machining has opened up areas of applications that were unthinkable of only a few years ago. This paper reports on the technology of using high peak power, short pulse width lasers to carve microstructures on materials such as tool steel, copper and silicon. The structures were carved out with a laser beam focussed to a spot of no bigger than 50 µm and having a beam power density exceeding 10⁸ W/cm². The beam was scanned over the surface of the substrate and material was ablated track-by-track and layer-by-layer to form the final pseudo-3D micro-structure. Feature resolution of less than 50 µm with a surface roughness R_a of less than 10 µm were achieved. Minimum heat affected zones and no micro-cracks were observed on the machined features. The dependence of the ablation depth, ablation rate, surface roughness, and dimensional resolution on process parameters and beam scan overlaps will be reported. Application examples of micro-fluidic devices will be discussed.