Application Of Laser Equipment in Electronic Circuit Industry

Laser technology has developed rapidly and has been widely used in industrial production, communications, information processing, medical and health, military, culture and education, scientific research and other fields. As electronic products develop toward multi-function, portability, and miniaturization, higher and higher requirements are placed on the electronic circuit processing industry.

 

1. Mainstreaming Laser Processing
Laser processing uses light energy that is focused by a lens to reach a high energy density at the focus, and is processed through the photothermal effect. Laser processing does not require tools, has fast processing speed, small surface deformation, and can process various materials. Laser processing technology is a non-contact processing method, so it does not produce mechanical extrusion or mechanical stress, and is particularly in line with the processing requirements of the electronics industry. Laser processing technology is widely used in the electronics industry due to its advantages of high efficiency, no pollution, high precision, and small heat-affected zone.

 

 

2. Advantages of Laser Processing
① Laser processing and molding is more precise, achieving micron-level processing, and its advantages are particularly prominent in micro-hole manufacturing and special-shaped molding of electronic circuit boards.
② Laser processing has high precision, and the laser beam spot diameter can reach less than 1 μm, which can be used for ultra-fine processing. It is non-contact processing, has no obvious mechanical force, facilitates positioning and identification, and ensures high processing accuracy.
③ Laser processing has a wide range of materials and is suitable for processing various metal and non-metal materials.
④ Laser processing performance is good, and there are no special requirements for processing occasions and working environments. There is no vacuum environment, no radioactive rays, and no pollution.
⑤ Laser processing is fast, efficient, flexible and simple.

 

3. Application of Laser Equipment In Electronic Circuit Industry
Laser technology is a comprehensive technology involving multiple disciplines such as light, mechanics, electricity, materials and testing. Its research scope can generally be divided into: laser processing systems, including lasers, light guide systems, processing machine tools, control systems and Detection system; laser processing technology, including cutting, welding, surface treatment, drilling, marking, marking, fine-tuning and other processing technologies. Laser processing equipment mainly includes laser cutting machines, laser welding machines and laser marking machines.

 

①Application of laser cleaning technology in electronics industry
The electronics industry will use lasers to clean oxidizing substances, and the electronics industry is suitable for using lasers to clean oxidizing substances. Before welding the circuit board, the component pins must be fully oxidized to ensure the electrical contact effect, and the pins must not be damaged during the decontamination process. Laser cleaning can meet the usage requirements and the work efficiency is very high. A needle only needs to be hit with the laser once.

 

②Application of laser welding technology in electronics industry
With the demand for intelligent development in the electronics industry, circuit boards are getting smaller and thinner, with more and more layers and more electronic components. The application of laser in the circuit board industry is also increasing. Especially in the microelectronics industry, it has been widely used. Laser welding has a small heat-affected zone, rapid heat concentration, and low thermal stress. It has unique advantages in the packaging of integrated circuits and semiconductor devices. In the development of vacuum devices, laser welding has also been applied, such as molybdenum focusing electrodes and stainless steel support rings, rapid heating cathode filament components, etc.

 

③ Application of laser cutting technology in electronics industry
UV laser cutting has shown huge technical advantages in fields such as circuit board separation in the SMT industry and micro drilling in the PCB industry. Depending on the thickness of the circuit board material, the laser cuts along the desired contour one or more times. The thinner the material, the faster the cutting speed. According to the material characteristics of similar circuit boards, laser cutting will provide higher processing quality and efficiency, which can reduce more production costs for enterprises and greatly expand the scope of product design and processing.

 

④ Application of laser marking technology in electronics industry
Laser marking technology is one of the largest application areas of laser processing. Depending on the material properties of circuit boards or electronic products, laser marking will have greater application space in the electronics industry. Laser marking is a marking method that uses high-energy-density laser to locally illuminate the workpiece to vaporize the surface material or cause a chemical reaction of color change, thereby leaving a permanent mark.
Laser marking has the characteristics of high precision, fast speed, clear marking and long-lasting effect. When used in the circuit board production process, information traceability in the circuit board industry can be better realized, and it can be flexibly applied to various text information of products, including complex product logos, QR codes, etc. , thereby solving practical application problems that are difficult to implement or inefficient with traditional processing methods.

 

⑤ Laser technology is used to remove solder mask layer
When making solder resist, it is often the case that through holes are clogged or pattern transfer errors cause the connection pads to be covered with solder resist. If laser methods are used, these two problems can be completely solved. Use a laser to drill through some holes blocked by solder mask, and then use potion to remove other parts. It is fast and does not damage the board. The laser can quickly and accurately remove solder mask directly from the connection board.

 

⑥ Laser technology is used for drilling holes in circuit carrier boards
Laser drilling machines are used for drilling blind holes in HDI and IC carrier boards. They are currently the most widely used laser in the PCB industry. It has been around for nearly 20 years. As electronic products further develop in the direction of being light, thin, short, and small, there are more and more types of circuit boards using HDI technology, and more and more lasers will be used for blind hole drilling. However, a relatively new application is laser drilling in flexible boards. As the diameter of the through holes on the flexible board becomes smaller and smaller, the diameter of 0.1 mm has been mass-produced, and the next step is to develop to the diameter of 0.08 mm and 0.05 mm. The cost of mechanical drilling is getting higher and higher, and the cost of laser drilling is The cost is getting lower and lower, and the hole shape and plating effect are very good.

 

 

At present, consumer electronics products are being upgraded towards high precision, high thinness, and high integration. New materials such as thin film materials, hard and brittle transparent materials, and special thin metal materials are gradually being applied on a large scale. As a non-contact processing technology, laser processing technology has unique advantages such as high efficiency, high precision, small thermal effect and spatial selectivity. It is an ideal processing method for the above-mentioned new materials. As the technology gradually matures and costs decrease, the laser processing equipment market is expected to grow explosively in the next few years.