Ultrafast laser can obtain extremely high pulse energy. Among them, ultrafast laser refers to the pulse laser whose pulse width is picosecond (ten to twelve seconds) or less than picosecond. According to the pulse width of output laser, ultrafast laser is divided into picosecond laser, femtosecond laser and attosecond laser.
Ultrafast laser is that the light energy is concentrated in the time interval from picosecond to femtosecond, and then the light is focused to the ultra-fine space area smaller than the hair diameter. At the same time, the laser energy is concentrated in such a short time, and a huge single pulse energy and very high peak power will be obtained.
Ultrafast laser processing is also called cold processing. The interaction time between ultrafast laser and materials is very short, which can largely avoid the melting and continuous evaporation of materials caused by long pulse width and low-intensity laser (thermal effect), ensure that the processing process will not affect the surrounding materials in the space involved, and improve the processing quality. Therefore, ultrafast laser processing is called cold processing.
Laser precision machining requires high stability of ultrafast lasers. In addition, there is a lack of supporting products, including chillers, which used to rely on imported products.
There are two patterns in the development of foreign ultrafast laser companies: one is that they have their own core technology, which was later acquired by leading enterprises in the laser industry and invested in the arms of large enterprises; Second, independent development. At present, it has become the mainstream to be acquired by large enterprises. The main reason is that ultrafast laser enterprises are generally start-ups with small scale, high cost and limited initial application. However, the leading enterprises in the laser industry are concerned about the rapid growth and market potential of ultrafast laser, and have entered the ultrafast laser industry through mergers and acquisitions.
At present, the domestic ultrafast laser is in the early stage of development, but some excellent enterprises such as Han's laser, Huari laser, Behring laser and Anyang laser have also been born. From the perspective of product layout, most enterprises now have the mass production capacity of picosecond laser, and gradually increase the power of picosecond laser. At present, the maximum power reaches 50W. At present, femtosecond lasers are mainly produced by foreign manufacturers, especially UV femtosecond lasers are controlled and monopolized by foreign manufacturers. At present, some domestic enterprises have broken through the R & D and production of UV femtosecond lasers.
For micro nano processing applications, most of the application requirements are concentrated in the range of 20-50w, a small part of the power requirements are 100W and above, and the single pulse energy ranges from more than ten micro joules to hundreds of micro joules. The applicable materials are very wide, mainly concentrated in brittle glass, ceramics, sapphire, silicon nitride, wafer, metal and composite film materials.
In 2021, the global ultrafast laser processing market sales reached US $3752.40 million, and it is expected to reach US $6984.99 million in 2028. The compound growth rate of the market from 2022 to 2028 is 7.88%.
From a regional perspective, the Chinese market has developed rapidly in the past few years. Its market size in 2021 was US $2233.18 million, accounting for 59.51% of the world. It is expected to reach US $4577.93 million in 2028, so China's share in the global market will reach 65.54%.
In terms of product type and technology, the market scale of picosecond ultrafast laser processing reached US $1824.62 million in 2021. Analysts predict that it will reach US $3527.99 million in 2028. The compound growth rate of the market from 2021 to 2027 is 7.92%.
The market scale of femtosecond pulse ultrafast laser processing reached US $464.58 million in 2021. Analysts predict that it will reach US $1996.29 million in 2028. The compound growth rate of the market from 2022 to 2028 is 19.96%.
At present, the world's major manufacturers include Han's laser, disco, Huagong technology, Shengxiong laser, Korean EO technologies, coherent, IPG, tier laser and guangyunda. In 2021, the share of the top ten major manufacturers exceeded 80.83%. In addition, analysts predict that the competition in the Chinese market will be more intense in the next few years.
Source: Jianle Shangbo
