METHOD OF LASER ABLATION WITH REDUCED VISUAL EFFECTS

• Main Authors: GEERLINGS, Kurtis L, LUTEN, Henry A, BAREMAN, Donald L, CAMMENGA, David J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 20.10.2021
• Subjects: CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF GLASSES, GLAZES, OR VITREOUSENAMELS; CHEMISTRY; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; GLASS; JOINING GLASS TO GLASS OR OTHER MATERIALS; MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; METALLURGY; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; SURFACE TREATMENT OF FIBRES OR FILAMENTS MADE FROM GLASS,MINERALS OR SLAGS; SURFACE TREATMENT OF GLASS; TRANSPORTING; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM

A laser ablation process can be configured to reduce the appearance of or eliminate a potentially objectionable diffraction effect that can occur when a workpiece or product that has been subjected to the ablation process interacts with light. The diffraction effect can be reduced by introducing irregularity into the arrangement of overlapping laser spots during the process. Other process parameters may be modified to reduce the diffraction effect, such as laser scan speed, laser pulse frequency, the position of the focal plane of the laser, the configuration of raster lines, or the energy profile of the laser beam, for example. The process modifications and configurations are particularly useful with products including an ablated surface that is intended to reflect light or to allow light to pass therethrough as part of its function.