ELECTRONICS
Laser applications in electronics production
www.lasersystemseurope.com/industries/electronics-displays
One of the main users of laser materials processing is the electronics industry, which is one of the world’s biggest industrial sectors
According to Statista, in 2023 the Consumer Electronics market alone is worth $1,028bn. Of this, the largest segment is telephony – which has a 2023 market volume of around $498bn[1]. The growth and evolution of the electronics sector is showing no signs of slowing, thanks in part to a continuing drive towards smaller, more energy-efficient and more environmentally friendly electronic products. This means there is an increasing
use of lasers for a range of tasks within electronics manufacturing. Machining work carried out by lasers includes drilling very small holes in printed circuit boards (PCBs), altering the performance of electronic components by trimming them down in size, trimming complete circuits down, and machining features into silicon wafers. In addition, for quality control and traceability, lasers are used to mark various parts including electronic components, PCBs, switches and connectors. Not only do lasers work much
faster and use less power when carrying out machining tasks compared with mechanical methods, they eliminate the need for consumables during marking processes. The latter has the additional environmental gain of eradicating the use of potentially hazardous chemicals and inks. Another advantage of
using laser-based technologies in the manufacture of circuits is that lasers can process a wide range of materials including ceramics, composites, metals and plastics, which are all found within the electronic devices we use daily.
Laser drilling of PCBs For PCBs to be turned into usable electronics, components and connections between them must be added. This requires tiny holes to be drilled that are used for the copper “tracks” that transfer signals between PCB layers. These holes are known as “vias” and are copper-plated after drilling. As electronic devices become
The miniaturisation of PCBs has led to them being more densely packed, meaning that the process used to cut them from panels needs to be highly accurate and must create a narrow kerf. Lasers from firms such as Coherent can be used for these tasks
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smaller, PCBs are increasingly being miniaturised and contain ever more densely packed components. When the vias required are less than 0.15mm in diameter it is not possible to use mechanical drilling because drill bits smaller than this tend to break, so a laser must be employed instead. For slightly larger holes, mechanical drilling can have the advantage over laser drilling in that it creates consistent holes that are not tapered, unlike the thimble-shaped holes blown by lasers. Lasers can also leave ragged edges to the holes. But on the plus side, lasers can ablate a wider range of materials and hole sizes than mechanical drills, are non-contact (meaning no tool wear), and can be faster. Also, mechanical drills usually go all the way through the board, whereas laser drilled “micro-vias”
(vias less than 150 micrometres in diameter that enable more complex and denser packed PCBs) only reach between one or two electrical layers within the PCB. Lasers that can be used for ablating holes in PCBs include, for example, fibre lasers, UV- YAG lasers and CO2
lasers: the
choice of laser being dependent on the material that needs to be machined. Nanosecond lasers are generally used for flexible PCBs, with short-pulsed lasers being ideal for drilling the FR4 class of PCB – which has an epoxy resin-glass fabric composite as its base material – because they don’t tend to burn the composite.
Laser trimming of components and circuits Another application of lasers by the electronics industry is for trimming material away from a component to change its operating parameters. For example, a widespread laser trimming task is burning away some of the material that thin- film and thick-film resistors are made from to alter the
“On the plus side, lasers can ablate a wider range of materials and hole sizes than mechanical drills, are non-contact, and can be faster”
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Coherent
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