Fiber lasers provide microprocessing capabilities essential for high quality and low cost production of complex devices, products, and parts. Without fiber lasers, these devices would be either too costly for mass adoption or simply impossible to produce. As the inventor and world’s leading producer of fiber lasers, IPG Photonics utilizes decades of real-world processing experience to offer the most diverse range of laser sources for microprocessing.
Laser Microprocessing
Laser Microprocessing Solutions
For Any Industry & Application
Products across all industries continue to get smaller and more complex. Precision, speed, and quality are the key factors in microprocessing of components found in our daily lives. Cutting of transparent and brittle materials, joining plastics, selective material removal, micro-drilling, and surface structuring are all applications that benefit from our range of fiber laser microprocessing solutions.
Microelectronics
New consumer devices continue to provide more functionality while shrinking in size, requiring manufacturers to produce even smaller components with higher density connections. Common laser applications include:
- Via drilling
- Flex circuit drilling and cutting
- Micro-welding and hermetic sealing
- Package singulation
- Chip ablation and marking
Photovoltaics
Since 2010, solar has experienced dramatic annual growth rates due to a significant decrease in installation costs. Solar industry manufacturers rely on the high accuracy and flexibility of fiber lasers to meet this demand for applications including:
- Silicon wafer drilling and cutting
- Selective doping and annealing
- Scribing and structuring
- Surface texturing
- Dielectric layer ablation
Medical Devices
In the U.S alone, nearly 2 million stents are implanted annually. Fiber lasers provide the high precision, repeatability, and extremely low thermal input for medical device applications including:
- Stent and catheter cutting
- Cutting and drilling medical grade polymer tubes
- Micromachining of borosilicate glass for microfluidics
- Micro-welding of titanium and stainless steel
- Corrosion resistant marking on devices that require UDI numbers
Automotive
Modern vehicles utilize innovative polymer materials to reduce weight and improve performance. Joining and modifying components with simple and complex geometries is made possible with the flexible, reliable, and consistent processing fiber lasers provide for automotive applications including:
- Thin film microperforation
- Selective coating ablation
- Transparent plastic and intermediate film welding
- Surface structuring and modification
Aerospace
Aerospace vehicles are comprised of thousands of complex components. From minute sensor production to high-speed drilling of massive turbines, IPG lasers improve production and increase quality in a wide variety of aerospace applications:
- Micro-welding and hermetic sealing of sensors
- Surface preparation and cleaning
- High-speed drilling for turbines
- Titanium welding
Displays
Displays continue to evolve towards thinner, lighter, brighter, and more ergonomic designs. Fiber lasers overcome manufacturing challenges for displays with minute features and differing material combinations to optimize applications including:
- RGB pixel hole drilling
- Glass/sapphire cutting and scribing
- Thin film patterning
- OLED and silicon wafer annealing
Semiconductor
Increasing transistor densities of <3 nanometers has prompted foundries and fabs to embrace the high accuracy and precision of fiber lasers to enable further device miniaturization, optimizing semiconductor applications including:
- Wafer scribing, dicing, and cutting
- Blind or through microvia drilling
- Wafer patterning
- Wafer marking and serialization
EV Batteries
Global electric vehicle sales continue to rise annually. Only fiber laser technology can help manufacturers decrease electric vehicle production costs and increase part quality in applications including:
- Electrode foil cutting and notching
- Cathode blind-hole patterning and electrode foil structuring
- Foil cleaning
The IPG Difference
Industrial Fiber Laser Leader & Pioneer: IPG invented and popularized industrial fiber lasers, revolutionizing materials processing across virtually every industry and application. Continuous innovation has made a wide variety of microprocessing applications both possible and dramatically more productive.
Vertically Integrated R&D and Production: IPG designs, produces, and rigorously tests all critical components in every IPG laser. Vertical integration expedites product development, allowing IPG to meet customer needs faster than any other company. Internal production ensure full quality control over all microprocessing solutions.
Widest Range of Products: IPG offers the most diverse range of laser sources for microprocessing across all modes of operation from continuous wave to pulsed nanosecond and ultrafast, the broadest wavelength range from UV to to green to mid-IR, and the widest powers range from watts to kilowatts. Beyond lasers, IPG designs and manufactures beam delivery, systems, and software optimized for microprocessing applications.
Advantages of Fiber Lasers for Microprocessing
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Micro-Cutting
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Medical Fine Tube & Stent Cutting
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Glass Cutting & Marking
Eliminate Negative Heat Effects
Operating in pulse durations measured in femtoseconds and picoseconds, ultrafast fiber lasers remove material while dramatically reducing negative heat effects.
This "cold" processing virtually eliminates heat affected zones, unwanted melting, and cracking for consistent, controlled processing of high-precision features and sensitive materials.
A wide range of laser wavelengths from deep UV to mid-IR can be optimized to the material and application to further reduce heat input for particularly sensitive features.
Maximize Throughput
Precision laser microprocessing does not have to come at the cost of high processing speeds. For many applications, lasers utilizing pulse durations measured in nanoseconds enable excellent feature quality and high productivity.
For applications that require even shorter pulse durations and shorter wavelengths, IPG lasers offer the flexibility to tune operating frequency and maximize pulse energy for maximum precision at higher throughputs.
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Polyimide Cutting
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Polymer Marking
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Ceramic Drilling (200 µm Holes)
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Cutting & High Resolution Drilling of Alumina (2,000+ Holes)
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Polymer Tube Welding
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Sapphire & Silicon Cutting
Increase Feature Quality
Single-mode fiber lasers produce remarkably small focal spots, with diameters as low as <20 µm, on the target material for high-precision results. Fiber lasers can also emit light in longer pulses with high peak power.
Maximized laser power density and peak power enable clean cutting of fine features and precision welding in a wide variety of materials. In certain materials and applications, shorter green and ultraviolet wavelengths enable even higher precision and smaller part features.
Discover Your Microprocessing Solution
IPG is a partner for every stage of production from research and development to full-scale manufacturing.
Our laser microprocessing experts are ready to evaluate your application and offer a solution optimized for your requirements
Get an Application Evaluation