FEATURE: BEAM CONTROL
Scanlab’s XL Scan synchronously controls a 2D scan head and a positioning stage. It can also process 3D workpieces with integrated Z-axis control
machines, and Lasea with its LS5 system, provide complete five-axis systems for ultrafast laser micromachining. The German firm Arges even supplies its
five-axis Elephant scan head in an eight-axis version – the beam can be moved through XYZ co-ordinates, two beam inclination angles, two polarisation parameters, and a beam attenuation value. Last year Arges was acquired by Novanta, which also owns Cambridge Technology, Synrad, Laser Quantum, and Celera Motion, among other firms active in the medical sector.
Scan head plus stage At Photonics West in San Francisco, Cambridge Technology launched version three of its ScanMaster Controller software, which includes the ‘SyncMaster’ feature that synchronises a scan head with any XY stage controller. ‘There is a growing demand for large-
area processing with high accuracy and speed in multiple applications, such as micromachining, where customers see a benefit for synchronising the scan head and the XY stage,’ said Bhavesh Bhut, product manager for software and controls at
Cambridge Technology. A key advantage of this software release, say the firm, is that it makes synchronisation easier for the user. First, the engineer enters the XY stage and controller specifications, including X- and Y-axis travel distance, calibration data and encoder calibration. Once entered, the software takes care of the synchronisation and communicates directly with the controllers. Scanlab, together with ACS Motion
Control, based in Israel, has developed XL Scan, a scan solution for synchronously controlling a 2D scan head and an XY stage, which gives an almost limitless working area. The XL Scan is ideal for the display market, according to Schlüter, as the scanner works with small laser spots, machining small features, but processing over large areas. Austrian firm Rebeat is using it to make moulds for pressing vinyl records, while there are companies in Germany using XL Scan for large-field processing of glass or PCB board drilling. ‘To have accurate control of the laser
beam over a large area requires third order- limited trajectory planning,’ said Schlüter, which is provided inside the PC. The
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scanner software has a dynamic-link library (DLL), which the user can access with C, C#, or C++, to give mark and jump commands to the trajectory planning. The software then corrects the beam path in such a way that the scanner and stage can follow the path that has been programmed. In this way the acceleration and jerk of the stage and scanner are not breached. In terms of the stage, companies such as Siemens or Beckhoff have third order, or higher, limited trajectory planning. But these XY stages have input-process-output (IPO) cycle times of 2ms, so a lot of time to calculate complex paths. Scanlab’s scanners have to operate in 10µs cycle time, Schlüter said, which has recently become possible with the computing power that is now available. Once third order-limited trajectory is in
place, the trajectory is split into a path for the stage and a path for the scanner. This is done with a low-pass filter, which sends slow motions to the stage and the higher frequency motions to the scanner. The trajectory control and the filter design in the software send path co-ordinates to the RTC board, which sends part of the co-ordinate
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