Product Code: ICAL09_M307

Rapid Prototyping of Microchannels into Silicon with a Femtosecond Fiber Laser
Authors:
Dong Hyuck Kam, CLAIM, The University of Michigan; Ann Arbor MI USA
Jyoti Mazumder, Clpam, the University of Michigan; Ann Arbor MI USA
Presented at ICALEO 2009

We report on rapid prototyping of microchannels into silicon wafer with a femtosecond pulsed laser. The microchannel is a basic component composing microfludic structures for biomedical applications. In development of such micro-fluidic structures, the mask-less laser direct writing will reduce time and cost as a tool for rapid prototyping compared with the conventional photolithography based technique. While fs ablation ends to be more precise than nanosecond lasers, its slow processing speed is a challenge in practical application. Utilizing the benefit of a high repetition of the fs laser, a wide machining range of channel depth is achieved with a reasonable processing time. Influences of the scan speed and the beam spot size on the material removal rate and the surface quality investigated to maximize the processing speed with relatively low pulse energy of 10 µJ. As a demonstration, a multi-depth microchannel network is laser machined into silicon