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Digital micromirror devices for laser-based manufacturing

Digital micromirror devices for laser-based manufacturing
Digital micromirror devices for laser-based manufacturing
Digital Micromirror Devices (DMDs), containing arrays of around one million individually-controllable ~10µm square mirrors, provide an extremely cost-effective and practical method to modulate the spatial beam profile of a pulsed laser source for both additive and subtractive laser processing and printing. When demagnified by a factor of ~100 in one dimension (hence ~10,000 in area) a ~1mJ/cm2 laser pulse reflected from the mirrors on the DMD surface that are switched to the 'on' position, attains a fluence of ~10J/cm2 at the workpiece, which is more than sufficient to ablate most materials of interest to the laser-manufacturing community. More familiar in the context of high values of magnification by the laser projection industry, reversing the role to use them for equally high values of demagnification opens up a wealth of possibilities for ablation, multiphoton polymerization, security marking and fabrication of features that perhaps surprisingly can be well below the wavelength of the laser used. Of key relevance is that very high-resolution patterning can be achieved by a single laser pulse, and step-and-repeat processes, when combined with the refresh rates of the DMD pattern that are currently at the 30kHz level, open up the possibility of processing areas of up to 1cm2 per second with micron-scale resolution where each ~100µm x 100µm area patterned per pulse can display arbitrary pixelated content.
We will discuss the application of DMD-baser laser processing to the following areas of interest to the laser-manufacturing community.
Eason, R.W.
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Mills, B.
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Feinäugle, M.
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Grant-Jacob, J.A.
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Heath, D.J.
d53c269d-90d2-41e6-aa63-a03f8f014d21
Eason, R.W.
e38684c3-d18c-41b9-a4aa-def67283b020
Mills, B.
05f1886e-96ef-420f-b856-4115f4ab36d0
Feinäugle, M.
3b15dc5b-ff52-4232-9632-b1be238a750c
Grant-Jacob, J.A.
c5d144d8-3c43-4195-8e80-edd96bfda91b
Heath, D.J.
d53c269d-90d2-41e6-aa63-a03f8f014d21

Eason, R.W., Mills, B., Feinäugle, M., Grant-Jacob, J.A. and Heath, D.J. (2014) Digital micromirror devices for laser-based manufacturing. EPSRC: Manufacturing the Future, Glasgow, United Kingdom. 23 - 24 Sep 2014.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Digital Micromirror Devices (DMDs), containing arrays of around one million individually-controllable ~10µm square mirrors, provide an extremely cost-effective and practical method to modulate the spatial beam profile of a pulsed laser source for both additive and subtractive laser processing and printing. When demagnified by a factor of ~100 in one dimension (hence ~10,000 in area) a ~1mJ/cm2 laser pulse reflected from the mirrors on the DMD surface that are switched to the 'on' position, attains a fluence of ~10J/cm2 at the workpiece, which is more than sufficient to ablate most materials of interest to the laser-manufacturing community. More familiar in the context of high values of magnification by the laser projection industry, reversing the role to use them for equally high values of demagnification opens up a wealth of possibilities for ablation, multiphoton polymerization, security marking and fabrication of features that perhaps surprisingly can be well below the wavelength of the laser used. Of key relevance is that very high-resolution patterning can be achieved by a single laser pulse, and step-and-repeat processes, when combined with the refresh rates of the DMD pattern that are currently at the 30kHz level, open up the possibility of processing areas of up to 1cm2 per second with micron-scale resolution where each ~100µm x 100µm area patterned per pulse can display arbitrary pixelated content.
We will discuss the application of DMD-baser laser processing to the following areas of interest to the laser-manufacturing community.

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Published date: September 2014
Venue - Dates: EPSRC: Manufacturing the Future, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 2014-09-23 - 2014-09-24
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 370144
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/370144
PURE UUID: 131382ab-fcd2-40ea-a418-39f9ff207ebc
ORCID for R.W. Eason: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9704-2204
ORCID for B. Mills: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1784-1012
ORCID for J.A. Grant-Jacob: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4270-4247

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 27 Oct 2014 10:28
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:37

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Contributors

Author: R.W. Eason ORCID iD
Author: B. Mills ORCID iD
Author: M. Feinäugle
Author: D.J. Heath

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