The UV Laser Based Printed Circuit

Board (PCB) Drilling Machine

The trend in the Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) design towards the
smaller features at very high densities is quite essential in order to
support the fast-growing market for the high-tech customer products.
This requires new laser processing capabilities with the use of the PCB
drilling machines.
The PCB drilling machines are a new generation of drilling, which makes
the use of the high power
picoseconds laser to allow high quality and
higher throughput
production of blind holes in the PC-Boards.

How the machine works

The
PCB drill machine uses a short lapse pulse with the high power
density to quickly feed energy into the work piece causing the material
to melt and vaporize. The greater the pulse energy, the more the
material it is
melted and vaporized. Vaporization will cause the
material volume in the
drilled hole to increase suddenly creating a high
pressure. This will
cause the vapor pressure to expel the molten
material from the hole.
Percussion Drilling with UV Lasers
The
PCB drill machine has to make through holes (vias), and blind
holes have
to be drilled into the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) which acts
as the interconnections between the layered systems. Both the holes
should have
straight walls. Percussion drilling with the use of UV laser
is a method of choice for most of the PCBs drilling. They reach very
high drilling rates of several thousand holes per second and can
drill diameters as small as 75m. The use of UV lasers makes it possible
to drill smaller diameters. However, these lasers are limited to only
a few tens of watts of the average power thus limiting the drilling rate.
Steps Involved in the Industrial UV Laser PCB Drilling
1. Absorption
The PCB
drilling machine has UV wavelength of frequency converted
lasers which
is absorbed in the copper as well as the composite material
and the plastics used for the PCB to allow much smaller diameter due
to the shorter wavelength.
The modern picoseconds lasers allow the
processing of a vast range
of materials even with the fundamental wavelength of 1330nm. Using a
peak power of more than 40MW and an
intensity of several GW/cm2, the
multiphoton absorption occurs. The
nonlinear absorption allows the
laser to process even highly transparent
materials with very low
optical penetration depth.
2. Depth Control
The creation of blind holes is easily achieved by controlling
the number of pulses. Ramping on the pulse energy is therefore not
required.
The modern laser drilling machines are built in an external
modulator
that is used to control and adjust the pulse energy from pulse
to pulse allowing pulse picking of single pulses in very precise control
of the drilling process.

3. Shaping the Holes

A Gaussian
intensity distribution can lead to increased damage to the
copper layers
in the center part of the hole and a larger taper angle
of the sidewalls. The sidewalls can be affected when trying to fill the
hole with copper. A top-hat beam shaper DOE is used to shape the
intensity
profile in a way that the angle of the hole is improved and
the radius
is reduced to achieve the desired shape.
4. Drilling rate
The drilling rate is strongly dependent on the material. It needs to
be in the range of a few thousand holes per second to fit the
production.
Increasing the average power of the laser from 50W to 100W
more than
doubles the drilling rate of the thru holes.

The High-Speed PCB Drilling Machine.

Below is a short description of the typical machine features that are

commonly available on the market.
- Large plastic base for easy positioning of the PCB
- Variable rpm that is infinitely adjustable
- Quick spring chuck without drill locking key making it suitable for
drilling shank size
- Adjustable drilling stroke - where the upper and lower
drilling stroke can be defined as the optimal up and down movement of
the strokes
- Adjustable control lever that can be set at the desired level.
- Dust exhaust connection socket for chip removal - it can be connected
to a vacuum cleaner or a central air exhaust system.
- Drill spot illumination to offer a better view of the work surface
area.
The PCB drilling systems with picoseconds lasers are available in
the market. This new generation of industry ready picoseconds lasers
have an average power of 100W and more will make them a capable tool
for mass
production. Further miniaturization with diameters down to 10
m is possible by adapting to the focusing optics and beam shapers.