Front-side Breakthrough Sensor for Laser Micromachining (BreatThrough-Vision)
New Technology Offering and Market Opportunity:BreakThrough-Vision is an innovative machine vision and breakthrough sensor technology which improves the control and quality of the laser micromachining process. Laser micromachining finds applications in a wide number of fields across the mechanical engineering, physics, electronics, microsystems and biomedical sectors. In laser micromachining applications, it is desirable, both for process efficiency, and for the quality of the hole or slot cut, to combine machine vision with an end-point detector to detect the moment of hole breakthrough or feature completion. Existing probes in some cases rely on as light source, and in all cases are prone to interferences from, the intense laser cutting beam and the plasma emission which it generates in the vicinity of the hole. The BreakThrough- Vision technology from NUI Galway offers for the first time a front-side, externally illuminated, machine vision technology, which allows real-time process control, for example end-point detection in hole drilling applications. This system eliminates camera saturation by filtering out the machining laser and plasma interferences, to give key advantages over other technologies.
A lucrative market opportunity arises to licence the BreakThrough-Vision machine vision technology for laser micromachining applications in a wide range of sectors, including:
• biomedical components
• singularisation (dicing) of silicon IC wafers
• pcb fabrication and drilling
• via drilling and metallisation processes
• silicon microsystems
• microsystems components
• microfluidics components This platform technology also opens market opportunities for applications of machine vision in a wide range of sectors in which light scattering characteristics change during the machining:
• plasma processing
• electric discharge machining (EDM)
• detection of surface defects and light point defects
Market Size:
The market case for the BreakThrough-Vision sensor technology is compelling. BreakThrough-Vision is applicable in laser systems for cutting and drilling, including dicing and other semiconductor micromachining applications. The global market in laser systems for materials processing was €6.1 billion in 2006 and is projected to rise at a CAGR of 13.5% to €10 billion by 2010. Laser cutting and welding currently dominates the market, but will be matched by microprocessing by 2010. The BreakThrough-Vision sensor technology, and the companion technology BreakThrough-Fibre (Tech-2007- 07), address a significant proportion of both market segments.
Technology Description:
Researchers in the Dept. of Experimental Physics and the National Centre for Laser Applications (NCLA) at NUI Galway have developed a front-side breakthrough sensor for laser micromachining. The BreakThrough-Vision sensor is capable of detecting the instant of breakthrough during the laser micromachining of a hole or slot.
Principal Investigators: Tony Flaherty and Fabien Bernard, National Centre for Laser Applications (NCLA). School of Physics, NUI Galway
Competitive Advantage and IP Status:
The NUI Galway team in the National Centre for Laser Applications has developed a new robust method of detecting the breakthrough of a hole during laser drilling micromachining, with advantages over existing sensors:
• Direct visualisation of machining process
• Allows operator to align, optimise and troubleshoot
• Front-side detection of breakthrough
• Accommodates complex machining geometries
• Independent illumination system for imaging
• Illumination laser beam is collinear with and scans simultaneously with machining laser
• Optional use of drill laser harmonic to illuminate
• Minimal additional optics required
• Filters out laser wavelength and plasma emission
• Avoids camera saturation by machining laser
• High camera frame rate by using laser illumination confined to local machining spot
• Independent of laser and plasma characteristics
• Capable of strobe-mode operation
• Eliminates laser scan flicker interferences
• Electronic detection of breakthrough point
• Breakthrough threshold criterion adjustable
Patent applications have been filed to protect the IP relating to this front-side breakthrough sensor for laser micromachining. NUI Galway is the owner of all IP.
Type of Business Sought
Licensing opportunities, start-ups, joint ventures
Type of Offer: Licensing
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