Laser Drilling

Blind and Through-Going Drilling

High flexibility and high speeds are the big benefits of laser technology when it comes to drilling of blind and through holes. As with cutting, there are two different laser processes for micro drilling: fusion drilling with pulsed lasers and external gas support, and vaporization-induced melt ejection as realized with q-switched solid-state lasers, for instance.
Chosing the appropriate wavelength and power density of the laser beam, practically all solid materials (metals, semiconductors, plastics, ceramics, diamonds) can be laser drilled.

Various Techniques for Laser Drilling

Pulse drilling of blind holes whith a depth of some microns is used for selective roughening of surfaces for gluing and coating processes. For through holes in small workpiece thicknesses, single-pulse processes can be used. For thicker materials percussion drilling is first choice and with which the required depth can be achieved by applying several laser pulses. For large diameters trepanning drilling, a combined drilling-cutting process, or the multi-pass method are used.

For this application we recommend the laser sources StarFemto FX, FLS-Serie or the laser system NA Needle Drilling System

Laser drilling of precision holes

Laser drilling of precision holes e.g. for injection nozzles in the automotive industry or needle holes in medical device technology

For laser drilling applications we recommend: StarFemto, StarFemto FX, NA Needle Drilling System

Laser Drilling of Silicon Wafers

Laser drilling e.g. of silicon wafers with the StarDisc, produces virtually no micro cracks or edge melting which might weaken the cell during further processing. Rear side contacted solar cells enlarge the solar-active surface and in this way cell efficiency. Current through-plating technologies require trepanning of some dozens of holes with a diameter of up to 500 µm (MWT technology) or percussion drilling of many thousands of holes with a diameter of 65 µm (EWT technology) on each cell. During this time-critical processing step throughput rates of 4,000 holes/sec with the EWT technology, and up to 100 holes/sec with the MWT method can be achieved.

For laser drilling applications we recommend: StarFemto FX, FLS Series

Laser Drilling of Rubber

Drilling of baby teats - 1mm diameter holes

For this application we recommend: SR Series, OEM iX Lasers