Micromachining of Borosilicate Glass and Laser Induced Backside Wet Etching of Quartz Using an Excimer Laser (248 Nm)
Abstract
Borosilicate glass is widely used in optical communications, optoelectronics as well as biomedical technologies and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Laser micromachining is an alternative approach for machining of glass. Further, UV transparent materials, such as quartz, and sapphire are materials of importance in optical and optoelectronics because of their outstanding properties, such as transparency in a wide wavelength range and strong damage resistance for laser irradiation. Laser induced backside wet etching (LIBWE) is a novel one step method for machining transparent materials, such as quartz, fused silica, and sapphire. In this investigation, micromachining of borosilicate glass and quartz is conducted using a short pulse (FWHM=25ns) KrF Excimer Laser (248nm wavelength) that generates laser energy in the range of 100-600 mJ. The machined surfaces were examined using conventional optical and laser interference microscopes. The impact of changing major operating parameters, such as pulse fluence and different media on the resulting geometries is studied. Simple as well as complex geometries, such as microfluidic channels, inductors, part geometries used in medical applications, and RF circuits were machined.
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- OSU Theses [15752]