MICROMACHINING BY EXCIMER-LASER

Excimer laser boots the performances for material processing and micromachining applications. Because of short emission wavelength (in the UV range), short pulse duration (15ns) and high peak power (>100MW/cm(2)) during laser emission; thermals effects during laser-material interaction are negligible. With appropriate beam delivery systems we perfome the micromachining of any kind of material (polymers, glasses, metals, ceramics...). We show examples of excimer laser micromachining or engraving and especially micromachining of ''hard'' and ''ultra-hard'' materials with aspect ratio as high as 60 and hole diameter as small as 3 mu m.