Optimization of high resolution digitally encoded laser scanners for fine feature marking
Disclosed herein are laser scanning systems and methods of their use. In some embodiments, laser scanning systems can be used to ablatively or non-ablatively scan a surface of a material. Some embodiments include methods of scanning a multi-layer structure. Some embodiments include translating a focus-adjust optical system so as to vary laser beam diameter. Some embodiments make use of a 20-bit laser scanning system.
1. A method, comprising:
selecting a laser beam diameter;
situating a substrate to be scanned at a scan plane associated with the selected laser beam diameter;
exposing the substrate to a laser beam with the selected laser beam diameter by scanning the laser beam with respect to the substrate, wherein the laser beam is scanned with angular scan increments corresponding to less than 1/10 of the laser beam diameter at the scan plane.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the laser beam is scanned with angular scan increments corresponding to less than 1/100 of the laser beam diameter at the scan plane.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the laser beam is scanned with angular scan increments corresponding to less than 1/1000 of the laser beam diameter at the scan plane.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected laser beam diameter is between 10 μm and 100 μm.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein scanning the laser beam with respect to the substrate comprises scanning the laser beam over a fixed scan area of the substrate.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the fixed scan area is square or circular.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the fixed scan area is square and has an area of at least one square meter.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising directing the laser beam over a fixed scan area of the substrate, wherein at least one of a laser beam power, pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, and laser beam diameter is selected so as to process the substrate.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the scanning of the laser beam is based on multi-point extrapolation and averaging.
10. An apparatus, comprising:
a laser configured to produce a processing beam;
an optical system situated to receive the processing beam; and
a scan controller configured to control the optical system to scan the processing laser beam with respect to a scan area of a substrate, wherein the processing laser beam is scanned with angular scan increments corresponding to less than 1/10 of a processing beam diameter at the scan area.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing beam is scanned with angular scan increments corresponding to less than 1/100 of the processing beam diameter at the scan area.
12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing beam is scanned with angular scan increments corresponding to less than 1/1000 of the processing beam diameter at the scan area.
13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing beam diameter is between 10 μm and 100 μm.
14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein scanning the processing beam with respect to the scan area of a substrate comprises scanning the processing beam over a fixed scan area of the substrate.
15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the fixed scan area is square or circular.
16. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the fixed scan area is square and has an area of at least one square meter.
17. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the scan controller controls at least one of a laser beam power, pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, and the processing beam diameter so as to process the substrate.
18. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the scan controller directs the processing beam based on multi-point extrapolation and averaging.
19. An apparatus, comprising:
a laser configured to produce a processing beam;
an optical system situated to receive the processing beam; and
a scan controller configured to control the optical system to scan the laser beam with respect to a scan area of a substrate so as to produce an exposed scan vector, wherein a transverse offset between the exposed scan vector and an intended scan vector is less than 1/10 of a diameter of the laser beam at the scan area.
20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the transverse offset between the exposed scan vector and the intended scan vector is less than 1/100 of the diameter of the laser beam.