and scribing

Cutting and of alumina

scribing of ceramic using
alumina ceramic CO -Laser
using a a CO2

Pafller
Matthias Päßler
N.U. -TECH GmbH
N.U.-TECH GmbH
Ilsahl 5, 2350 Neumunster
Ilsahl 5, Neumünster

Günter Lensch
Gunter
Universitat
Nordische Universität
Ilsahl 5,
Ilsahl 235O Neumunster
5, 2350 Neumünster

Abstract
This reports about the
This investigation mainly reports practicable processing of
the practicable ceramics
of alumina ceramics
(Al203) with aa pulsed
(A1 2 O 3 ) with pulsed 150 C0 2 ~laser
150 W CO2 focus diameter"of
with aa focus
-laser with urn.
8O um.
diameter of about 80

optimal parameters
The optimal length, pulse
parameters like pulse length, space and
pulse space the laser power had been
and the
determined
determined to of alumina
to work on plates of with variable
ceramics with
alumina ceramics of up
thickness of
variable thickness mm.
to 22 mm.
up to

Introduction
processing with
Ceramic processing high power
with aa high CO^-laser
power CO2 some important
-laser offers some advantages:
important advantages:

- during processing
- during ceramic plates
the ceramic
processing the not to
have not
plates have mechanical load
stand aa mechanical
to stand load
-
- the time of
the time the laser
of interaction between the beam and
laser beam the material
and the surface is
material surface short.
very short.
is very
Therefore the total heating of
Therefore the the material
of tLe is very
material is small.
very small.
-
- it
it is
is possible to process the without any
workpiece without
the workpiece soiling at
any soiling at the surface.
material surface.
the material
This very important
is very
This is for the
important for case that
the case that large sheets of
large sheets alumina ceramic
of alumina holding multiple
ceramic holding multiple
circuits
circuits should seperated into
should be seperated circuits.
individual circuits.
into individual

'Li A.! -Li `LL Li -(i ."

1.
Figure 1. Scribed thick film circuits.
film circuits.
- complicated shapes can be easily
- complicated laser-processed
easily laser ceramic material
in ceramic
-processed in CNC control
by CNC
material by control
-
- drill holes with very small
drill holes diameters are
small diameters possible.
are possible.

high efficiency
Together with the high high processing
and aa high
efficiency and C0 ? -laser
the CO2
speed the
processing speed -laser is the most
is the most
preferable tool
preferable tool for the machining of ceramics.
of ceramics.

Describtion of the processing system

machine Al?
To machine 0 ^ ceramic
Al203 ceramic up to a thickness mm, we
2 mm,
of 2
thickness of we use the Ceramic Processing
use the
System RSCP developed by
151 developed
RSCP 151 ROFIN-SINAR.
by ROFIN -SINAR.
1 5O W CO2
This system uses a 150
This laser.
CO 2 laser.

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 load of
thermal load
To minimize the thermal the pro-
of the
material the
cessing material
cessing the laser is working
laser is in
working in
superpulse.
so called superpulse.
the so

In to the
In comparison to -mode the
cw-mode
the cw the superpulse
efficiency about the
in efficiency
permits an increase in
5.
factor 5.
This shortly in-
This effect is achievable by a shortly
the stimulation
crease of the efficiency.
stimulation efficiency.
quality the
To secure an uniform process quality
is circular
laserbeam is
laserbeam with aa
circular polarizated with
focus of about
focus diameter of urn.
8O um.
about 80
That leads to aa power
leads to 2.107W7 W/cm2
densityofof2.10
power density /cm2

2.
Figure 2. 151
RSCP 151

3.
Figure 3. acryl showing
Laser processed acryl the beam
showing the geometry.
beam geometry.

Alumina ceramic
The use
use of ceramic
ceramic is very common
is very in electronic
common in applications.
electronic applications.
For instance
For instance it
it is used for
is used for flat
flat alumina substrates with a
alumina substrates a very smooth surface finish for
circuits.
film circuits.
thick film- and thin film

Employed substrate
Employed materials show
substrate materials contend of
A1203 contend
show aa Al^O.. of 96% for the
96% for technique
thick film technique
the thick
and 99%
99% for
for thin
thin film technique with
film technique with a standard thickness
a stanaard - 1 mm.
0/6 -
thickness between 0,6 1

The following
following properties are mainly important for applications:
for electronic applications:
- very small conductivity
-
stability
- high mechanical stability
-
- good thermal conductivity.
thermal conductivity.
In
In addition to these
addition to advantages the
these advantages 1O/6 mm
the 10,6 wavelength of
mm wavelength of the is readily
laser is
the CO 2 laser
absorbed by Al-O-,
absorbed by A1203 and
and the
the enhanced peak power
enhanced peak power is for melting and vaporization
sufficient for
is sufficient
that makes
that possible.
makes efficient machining possible.

The susceptibility
The to thermal
susceptibility to shocks is
thermal shocks of Al^
disadvantage of
is aa disadvantage Local overheating
A1203. Local overheating
causes fractures in
causes undisired fractures material.
the material.
in the
To avoid
avoid these fractures the
these fractures the area of energy
area of input has
energy input has to time very
be very small and the time
to be very
short.
We'll show
show that processing is
is possible without microcracks in if optimized
the material if
in the
used.
are used.
parameters are

284 / /SPIE
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 scribing
and scribing
Cutting and

produced distance
The produced
The distance between the holes is processes. To
is the main difference of both processes.
scribe ceramic
scribe hole distance
the hole
ceramic the is once
distance is to twice
once to the hole
twice the and the
diameter ar.d
hole diameter laser pulse
the laser pulse
penetrate about
penetrate 1/3 of
about 1/3 the material
of the thickness. The
material thickness. melted material
The melted is blown
material is by aa
out by
blown out
coaxial aas yet.
coaxial gas To avoid
yet. To soiling of
avoid soiling the substrate
of the the material
surface the
substrate surface is removed
material is by an
removed by an
installation.
exhaust installation.

4.
Figure 4. nozzle.
Scribing nozzle.

seperated along these

later be seperated
The ceramic can later scribed lines
these scribed very good
lines with very defined
good defined
edges.

5.
Figure 5.
Figure line of
Fault line ceramic.
scribed ceramic.
of scribed 6. Enlargement of
Figure 6. hole.
scribed hole.
of scribed
are restricted
mjcrocracks are
The microcracks to
restricted to
the melting zone.
the zone.

To cut ceramic
To cut holes are
the holes
ceramic the overlapped by
are overlapped 90 %
by 90 gaps. A coaxial
to obtain continuous gaps.
% to
gas yet is
gas yet used to
is used the melted material
to blow the through the
material through vacuum,
gap. This is supported by aa vacuum
the gap.
workpiece.
the workpiece.
under the

7.
Figure 7. nozzle.
Cutting Nozzle.

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 Figure 8.
8. Micrograph ofof aa cutted
cutted gap
gap
(material
(material thickness 635635 um).
urn). The
The
cutting width of of the
the gap
gap is
is between
between
8O and 90
80 9O um.
urn.

For both procedures it is possible to optimize the process parameters like

like pulse
pulse length,
length,
space, laser
pulse space, laser power,
power, input
input energy,
energy, gas pressure,
pressure, distance between the
the nozzle
nozzle and
and the
the
workpiece and the geometry of
of the
the nozzle.
nozzle.
Results without microcracks can be achieved with optimized process parameters and
and the
the
doesn't need
workpiece doesn't need any
any treatment
treatment afterwards.
afterwards.

31,9X HD ! 32MM
20K0 1411;32MM S'08881 P'08686
5;00001 P;00e06
1MM

Figure 9. Drill
Drill holes material.
holes in substrate material. Figure 10.
1O. Detail enlargement
enlargement of
of picture
picture 8.
8.
thickness 635
Material thickness 635 um.
urn. The web thickness is
is below SOum
50um
which is
is only possible without
in the
microcracks in the material.
material.
The
The most important process
most important process parameter is the
parameter is input energy.
the input is working
energy. Because the laser is
with constant performance
performance the
the input
input energy
energy is
is only variable with the pulse length.
length.
t

Energybalance Q,m 0.08 J

p
1141 Pulse
Pulse energy Q.
Q8

Cutting line j% •Material

Material

Melting Qe

e 0.002
Qh*« 0.002 .1J {( Melttng heat )
Melting heat
4
Qb 0.01 JJ ( Vaporization
- aOI heat )
Vaporization heat
Qv - Loss
Lose of energy ( Reflection,
Reflection.
` oonduoitvfty)
Thermo! radiation. Thermal

286 //SP
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/E Vol. 801 High Power Lasers (1987]
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 With decreasing puls length
length we get better results because the input
input energy
energy is
is coupled
coupled
effectively.
effectively. It is nearly
It is nearly only used for the melting and vaporization of the material and
undesired effects.
not for undesired effects.
The
The best
best results
results are
are attainable
attainable with a puls
puls length of us for
of 50 us for cutting.
cutting.
shorter length
A shorter length than that
that doesn't fulfil
fulfil the
the energy
energy balance,
balance, i.e
i.e the
the energy
energy is
is too
too
small
small to
to melt
melt and
and vaporize the
the material and
and to
to cover
cover the
the losses.
losses.
The
The following
following table summarizes the optimal
table summarizes optimal process
process parameters material
parameters for substrate material
with the thickness of 635
635 um.
urn.
Cutting Scribing
Laser power 160
160 W 80
80 W
Pulse
Pulse length 50 us 150 us
Pulse
Pulse space 10
10 urn
um 150 um
150 urn
rate
Feed rate 200 mm/min 5000
5000 mm/min
Pulse
Pulse frequenzy 333 HzHz 555
555 Hz
Focus 3O % of material thickness
30 % of material thickness
workpiece
inside the workpiece

Nozzle geometry
Nozzle diameter 0,5
0,5 mm 3 mm
3
Nozzle distance 0,5
0,5 mm up to
up to 10
1O mm
gas
Cutting gas air air
Cutting
Cutting gas
gas pressure 55 bar 3-4
3 - 4 bar

With regard
regard to
to the
the hardness and the brittleness
brittleness of AI^O^
A1203 alternative machining methods
can be the following:
following:
-- diamond cutting
-- water
water yet
yet cutting
-- cutting in the green
green state.
state.
However all these methods show
show some
some disadvantages:
disadvantages:
-- less accuray
less
-- soiling of
soiling of the surface
-- complicate
complicate geometries cause
cause difficulties
difficulties
-- small
small scribing speed compared
compared to
to laser
laser processing.
processing.
From the
the economical ceramic is
economical and thechnical point of view laser processing of ceramic is aa
competitive
competitive alternative
alternative to
to conventional
conventional techniques
techniques even specialy for
even specialy for industrial purposes.
purposes.
Summary
An empirical
empirical optimization of the process parameter lead to processing results
results of
alumina
alumina ceramic without microcracks inin the
the substrate
substrate material.
material.
Theoretical
Theoretical research
research in
in the field of
the field of parameter
parameter optimization is still
optimization is still very rare.
rare.
To
To continue
continue our present work aa basic
basic model
model will
will be
be developed.
developed.
Acknowledgments
The to thank
The authors wishes to thank A.
A. Grychta
Grychta for
for encouragement.
encouragement.
References

1. Rothe,
1. Rothe, Riidiger, zur Optimierung
Rüdiger, Beitrag zur Optimierung desdes thermischen
thermischen Schneidens
Schneidens mit
mit CO2
CO^-Hoch-
-Hoch-
leistungslasern, VDI
VDI-Verlag 1986.
-Verlag 1986.
2.
2. Salmang, H., Scholze,
Salmang, H., Scholze, H.,
H., Keramik,
Keramik, Springer
Springer-Verlag 1982.
-Verlag 1982.
3.
3. Bass,
Bass, M.,
M., Laser Materials
Materials Processing,
Processing, North
North-Holland Publishing Company
-Holland Publishing Company 1983.
1983.
4.
4. Duley,
Duley, W.W.,
W.W., C0 2 Lasers,
CO2 Lasers, Effects
Effects and
and Applications,
Applications, Academic
Academic Press 1976.
Press 1976.
5.
5. Duley,
Duley, W.W.,
W.W., Laser
Laser Processing
Processing and
and Analysis
Analysis of
of Materials,
Materials, Plenum Press.
Press.
6. Ready,
6. Ready, J.F.,
J.F., Material
Material processing
processing-an-an overview, Corporate Technol.
overview, Honeywell Corporate Technol. Center,
Center,
Bloomington, Proc. IEEE
Bloomington, Proc. IEEE (USA)
(USA) June
June 1982.
1982.

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