Pulsed UV and ultrafast laser micromachining of surface structures

We describe and compare the cutting and patterning of various "difficult" materials using pulsed UV Excimer, picosecond and femtosecond laser sources. Beam delivery using both fast galvanometer scanners and scanning mask imaging are described. Each laser source has its own particular strengths and weaknesses, and the optimum choice for an application is also decided by financial constraints. With some materials notable improvements in process quality have been observed using femtosecond lasers compared to picosecond lasers, which makes for an interesting choice now that cost effective reliable femtosecond systems are increasingly available. By contrast Pulsed UV Excimer lasers offer different imaging characteristics similar to mask based Lithographic systems and are particularly suited to the processing of polymers. We discuss optimized beam delivery techniques for these lasers.