Laser processing apparatus, laser processing method, and correction data generation method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11648629-B2
Application number	US-202016853742-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 20, 2020
Priority date	May 16, 2019
Publication date	May 16, 2023
Grant date	May 16, 2023

Abstract

A laser processing apparatus is used which includes: a laser oscillator that oscillates a processing laser beam at a processing point to be processed on a surface of a workpiece; an optical interferometer that emits a measurement beam to the processing point and generates an optical interference intensity signal based on interference generated due to an optical path difference between the measurement beam reflected at the processing point and a reference beam; a first mirror that changes traveling directions of the processing laser beam and the measurement beam; a second mirror that changes an incident angle of the measurement beam onto the first mirror; a lens that focuses the processing laser beam and the measurement beam on the processing point; a memory that stores corrected processing data; a control unit that controls the laser oscillator, the first mirror, and the second mirror based on the corrected processing data; and a measurement processing unit that derives a depth of a keyhole generated at the processing point by the processing laser beam, based on the optical interference intensity signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laser processing apparatus comprising:
a laser oscillator that oscillates a processing laser beam at a processing point to be processed on a surface of a workpiece;
an optical interferometer that emits a measurement beam to the processing point and generates an optical interference intensity signal based on interference generated due to an optical path difference between the measurement beam reflected at the processing point and a reference beam;
a first mirror that changes traveling directions of the processing laser beam and the measurement beam;
a second mirror that changes an incident angle of the measurement beam onto the first mirror;
a lens that focuses the processing laser beam and the measurement beam on the processing point;
a memory that stores corrected processing data;
a control unit that controls the laser oscillator, the first mirror, and the second mirror based on the corrected processing data; and
a measurement processing unit that derives a depth of a keyhole generated at the processing point by the processing laser beam, based on the optical interference intensity signal,
wherein the corrected processing data is corrected processing data for processing the workpiece, which is corrected in advance to eliminate a deviation of an arrival position of at least one of the processing laser beam and the measurement beam, which is caused by chromatic aberration of the lens, on the surface of the workpiece.

2. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the processing laser beam and the measurement beam have different wavelengths.

3. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the first mirror and the second mirror are galvanometer mirrors, respectively.

4. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the first mirror is a galvanometer mirror,
the second mirror is a parabolic mirror, and
the laser processing apparatus further comprises a movable stage that moves the measurement beam entering the second mirror.

5. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the lens is an fθ lens.

6. A laser processing apparatus comprising:
a laser oscillator that oscillates a processing laser beam at a processing point to be processed on a surface of a workpiece;
an optical interferometer that emits a measurement beam to the processing point and generates an optical interference intensity signal based on interference generated due to an optical path difference between the measurement beam reflected at the processing point and a reference beam;
a first mirror that changes traveling directions of the processing laser beam and the measurement beam;
a second mirror that changes an incident angle of the measurement beam onto the first mirror;
a lens that focuses the processing laser beam and the measurement beam on the processing point;
a memory that stores corrected processing data;
a control unit that controls the laser oscillator, the first mirror, and the second mirror based on the corrected processing data; and
a measurement processing unit that derives a depth of a keyhole generated at the processing point by the processing laser beam, based on the optical interference intensity signal,
wherein the corrected processing data is data obtained by correcting processing data generated in advance for processing the workpiece such that a deviation of an arrival position of at least one of the processing laser beam and the measurement beam on the surface of the workpiece, which is caused by the chromatic aberration of the lens, and a deviation between an angle of the keyhole and an angle of the measurement beam are eliminated.

7. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the corrected processing data includes an output indication value indicating an intensity of the processing laser beam oscillated from the laser oscillator, a first indication value indicating an operation amount of the first mirror, a second indication value indicating an operation amount of the second mirror, and a third indication value indicating an operation amount of the beam shift mechanism, the values being set in advance for each processing point.

8. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
a wavelength of the processing laser beam and a wavelength of the measurement beam are different from each other.

9. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the lens is an fθ lens.

10. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the first mirror and the second mirror are galvanometer mirror, respectively.

11. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the first mirror is a galvanometer mirror,
the second mirror is a parabolic mirror, and
the laser processing apparatus further comprises a movable stage that changes an emission angle from the measurement beam of the second mirror.

12. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the beam shift mechanism is a stage that is parallel translated in two or more axes in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the measurement beam when the second mirror is located at an original position, and has a first lens and a second lens.

13. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein
a focal length of the second lens is set longer than a focal length of the first lens, and
the second mirror and the beam shift mechanism are arranged such that the measurement beam from the optical interferometer passes through the second mirror and the beam shift mechanism in this order.

14. The laser processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the beam shift mechanism has a first parallel plane substrate and a second parallel plane substrate that rotate about an optical axis of the measurement beam.

15. A laser processing method performed by a laser processing apparatus, the laser processing apparatus having: a first mirror that changes traveling directions of a processing laser beam and a measurement beam; a second mirror that changes an incident angle of the measurement beam onto the first mirror; and a lens that focuses the processing laser beam and the measurement beam on a processing point on a surface of a workpiece to be processed, the method comprising:
irradiating the workpiece with the processing laser beam and the measurement beam based on corrected processing data by controlling the first mirror and the second mirror; and
measuring a depth of a keyhole generated at the processing point by the processing laser beam based on interference caused by an optical path difference between the measurement beam and a reference beam reflected at the processing point.

16. The laser processing method according to claim 15 , wherein
the corrected processing data is corrected processing data for processing the workpiece, which is corrected in advance to eliminate a deviation of an arrival position of at least one of the processing laser beam and the measurement beam on the surface of the workpiece, which is caused by chromatic aberration of the lens.

17. The laser processing method according to claim 15 , the laser processing method being performed by the laser processing apparatus further having a beam shift mechanism that changes an incident position of the measurement beam to the first mirror, the method comprising:
controlling the first mirror, the second mirror, and the beam shift mechanism based on the corrected processing data, and irradiating the workpiece with the processing laser beam and the measurement

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Takechi Yohei
• Yokoyama Jun
• Urashima Takashi

Classifications

• B23K26/082 Primary

  Scanning systems, i.e. devices involving movement of the laser beam relative to the laser head · CPC title

• B23K26/062

  by direct control of the laser beam · CPC title

• B23K26/50 Primary

  Working by transmitting the laser beam through or within the workpiece · CPC title

• G01B11/22

  for measuring depth · CPC title

• B23K26/0643

  comprising mirrors · CPC title