Planar Light Valve Optical Head for High Throughput 10[micro]m Feature Size Laser Processing

A high-throughput laser micro-machining system has been developed using a programmable multi-spot modulated line beam capable of >30x throughput enhancement over a single-spot system. While commercially available lasers have been rapidly growing in output energy and power, single-spot scanning systems cannot take full advantage of these advancements. This system provides high throughput, high resolution micro-processing on a variety of surfaces (stainless steel, aluminum, and polymer). This high productivity system is enabled by a high-power MEMS spatial light modulator called the Planar Light Valve (PLV (TM)). The PLV is a 1088-pixel device in a linear configuration capable of 10-bit, 100 kHz amplitude modulation. The PLV supports pulse energies of ~1 mJ (1064 nm, 10 ps) and has been used at pulse widths down to 300 femtoseconds. The system can resolve features as small as 10 [micro]m with an edge placement resolution of 2.5 [micro]m. Large area processing is done by scanning and stitching this line beam across the media using X-Y stages and a unique relay galvo scanner has been incorporated into the system to allow for faster scanning over a 15 x 15 mm area. Keywords: PLV, multi-beam, spatial light modulator, high power, scan head, MEMS