Micro welding with pulsed single mode fiber lasers

Many applications in the electronics, telecom and medical device industry require smaller and smaller laser joining areas. In order to adapt the processing speed to the average laser power pulsed laser operation is desired. Gated CW fiber lasers could provide pulsed laser operation with sufficient power stability. Some welding applications require focus spot diameters in the order of 25 µm and pulse energy levels as low as 10 mJ. The fiber laser’s excellent single mode beam quality will provide the desired spot size and laser power density. In addition many emerging micro welding applications require excellent power stability at low pulse energy levels to provide sufficient process yields. This paper will provide data about the power stability of pulsed fiber lasers and will show first micro welding results for a range of materials with a pulsed fiber laser system.