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Excimer laser micromachining of oblique microchannels on thin metal films using square laser spot

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Abstract

Excimer laser micromachining of thin metal films with a sacrificial polymer coating is a novel technique that produces features with smooth edges. Using this technique, oblique microchannels are fabricated by workpiece dragging and using a square laser spot, where the axis of traverse of the workpiece is not parallel to the edges of the square laser spot. The microchannels have serrated edges that are particular to the shape of the mask producing the spot. The edge roughness of the channels, machined with a square laser spot of side 100 μm, is found to be most affected by the fluence–spot overlap interaction, and the channel width by spot-overlap and the angle of tilt of the traversed path. Polymer coated metal films underwent close to ideal machining, aided by the clamping action of the polymer layer. Through this technique of machining post polymer coating, the edge roughnesses of the microchannels have been curtailed to less than 10 μm, and channel widths to 150 μm. This technique may be used in fabrication of oblique and circular patterns using excimer laser micromachining with rectangular and square laser spots.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (FIST DST Project No. 20060268), and the Indian Space Research Organization (Project No. 20120040) for partial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India

    Syed Nadeem Akhtar, Shashank Sharma & J Ramkumar

  2. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India

    S Anantha Ramakrishna

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  1. Syed Nadeem Akhtar
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  2. Shashank Sharma
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  3. S Anantha Ramakrishna
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  4. J Ramkumar
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Correspondence to Syed Nadeem Akhtar.

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Akhtar, S.N., Sharma, S., Ramakrishna, S.A. et al. Excimer laser micromachining of oblique microchannels on thin metal films using square laser spot. Sādhanā 41, 633–641 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-016-0500-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12046-016-0500-0

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