Patent ID: 6433305
Filing Date: 2002-08-13
Classification: B23K,B82Y,G02B

Abstract:
A method to drill a plurality of holes in a material using an ultra-fast pulsed laser beam, comprising the steps of:a) setting a pulse energy of the laser beam to a first predetermined level, selected to provide an intensity greater than an ablation threshold of the material within a hole-drilling portion of the laser beam; b) positioning the material to focus the laser beam on one of a plurality of first positions on a surface of the material; c) applying a number of pulses of the laser beam to ablate the surface, thereby forming one of the plurality of holes in the surface; d) repeating steps b) and c) until all of the plurality of first positions on the surface have one of the plurality of holes; e) setting the pulse energy of the laser beam to a second predetermined level, selected to provide an intensity greater that a laser hardened ablation threshold of the material within the hole-drilling portion of the laser beam; f) positioning the material to focus the laser beam on one of at least one second position on the surface, wherein the one second position is between two adjacent ones of the plurality of first positions; and g) applying a number of pulses of the laser beam to ablate the surface, thereby forming one of the plurality of holes in the surface.