Patent ID: 6570122
Filing Date: 2003-05-27
Classification: B23K,B82Y,G02B

Abstract:
Apparatus for drilling a plurality of holes in a material, comprising:an ultrafast pulsed laser which provides a laser beam; means, coupled to the ultrafast pulsed laser, for setting a pulse energy of the laser beam to a first predetermined level, selected to provide an intensity greater that an ablation threshold of the material within a hole-drilling portion of the laser beam; a translation table which positions the material to a first plurality of positions to focus the laser beam at each of the first plurality of positions on a surface of the material; means for applying a number of pulses of the laser beam to ablate the surface at each of the first plurality of positions to form a first portion of the plurality of holes in the surface; means for setting the pulse energy of the laser beam to a second predetermined level, selected to provide an intensity greater than a laser hardened ablation threshold of the material within the hole-drilling portion of the laser beam; means, coupled to the translation table for 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 first plurality of positions; and means for applying a number of pulses of the laser beam at the second predetermined level of beam energy to ablate the surface at the one second position, thereby forming one of the plurality of holes in the surface.