Fraunhofer and Hamamatsu jointly launched USP laser material processing applicat

Recently, Fraunhofer Institute of laser technology (Fraunhofer ILT) announced to cooperate with Hamamatsu group of Japan to jointly launch a laboratory for advanced laser material processing and application of ultra short pulse (USP) laser radiation in Germany.

Recently, the two sides have jointly developed a spatial light modulator (SLM) head for industrial processing. It is reported that this SLM head can be used in a wide range of fields and scenarios using customized dynamic beam shaping combined with high average laser output power. The average output power of the new SLM head from Hamamatsu can reach 150W.

Image source: Fraunhofer ILT

Ultra short pulse (USP) laser radiation can process almost any material with the highest accuracy. In order to increase the economic benefits of ultrashort pulse processing, researchers use different hardware methods to process high average laser power of more than 100 watts, thereby improving processing speed and reducing unit cost.

A conventional way to achieve these high laser powers is to split high-energy radiation into many individual beams. This method has been applied in the industrial field, especially for 2D laser material processing or generating periodic patterns (such as filters).

It is introduced that phase masks are used to generate parallel beam patterns with one incident beam. It can work with SLM dynamically and diffractive optical elements (does) statically. According to the Institute, SLM can dynamically change the phase mode, so it can also change the beam matrix, while static diffractive optical elements can withstand higher average power.

In the Joint Application Laboratory of Hamamatsu and Fraunhofer ILT, both sides can use scanning based process heads and integrated high-power SLM to study manufacturing processes.

SLM is especially suitable for developing manufacturing processes using USP laser radiation, because the characteristics of the beam can be easily adapted and customized. This applies to both the beam profile and the arrangement of individual beams in a pattern. In large-scale production, when the beam shape must be changed dynamically, SLM can give better play to its advantages; If the beam parameters are known and static, diffractive optical elements (does) are a better choice because they are insensitive.

In the joint application laboratory, the above two parties have created a prototype for industrial application, which will be used to promote the development of manufacturing processes. This includes a scanner based process head in which Hamamatsu's high-power SLM is integrated. The head of SLM is integrated with a 3-axis machine and 150W USP laser. Since May, the system with the new SLM has been used in various processes and applications. In addition, Hamamatsu and Fraunhofer ILT teams also specially studied surface and volume ablation with different beam profiles and focus diameters.

Source: OFweek