Patent ID: 8379204

Claim:
A method for making an adjustment to alignment of a laser beam in a machine for selectively irradiating conductive links on or within a semiconductor substrate, wherein the beam intersects a plurality of optical elements that affect a position of a laser beam spot with respect to the conductive links at different focus lens positions, wherein the method provides remote adjustments to the laser beam alignment to correct for periodic misalignments of the laser beam and the position and orientation of the optical components in the machine that may otherwise lead to laser spot position thermal drift, reduced yield, manual adjustment errors or delayed system operation, the method comprising: setting at least one remotely adjustable beam directing optic in the path of a material processing laser beam; generating a laser beam spot having predetermined irradiance characteristics at or near a semiconductor substrate surface by expanding and focusing the laser beam with optical elements comprising a zoom telescope to adjustably expand the laser beam and a dynamic focus lens in the path of the laser beam; measuring a position coordinate of a selected target using the laser beam spot a first time at a first focus lens position; moving the focus lens; measuring a position coordinate of the selected target using the laser beam spot a second time at a different focus lens position; and remotely adjusting the adjustable beam directing optic responsive to data corresponding to the first and second measurements of position of the selected target, to align the laser beam path whereby conductive links on or within a semiconductor substrate are selectively irradiated after adjusting and wherein data corresponding to the measured selected target coordinate positions indicate an alignment error that is compensated by the step of adjusting.