Method for rapid laser drilling of holes in glass and products made therefrom

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016368100-A1
Application number	US-201615251453-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 30, 2016
Priority date	Dec 17, 2013
Publication date	Dec 22, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Forming holes in a material includes focusing a pulsed laser beam into a laser beam focal line oriented along the beam propagation direction and directed into the material, the laser beam focal line generating an induced absorption within the material, the induced absorption producing a defect line along the laser beam focal line within the material, and translating the material and the laser beam relative to each other, thereby forming a plurality of defect lines in the material, and etching the material in an acid solution to produce holes greater than 1 micron in diameter by enlarging the defect lines in the material. A glass article includes a stack of glass substrates with formed holes of 1-100 micron diameter extending through the stack.

First claim

1 . A method of forming through-holes in a material comprising:
forming a plurality of damage tracks into the material by focusing a pulsed laser beam into a laser beam focal line oriented along a beam propagation direction and directing the laser beam focal line into the material, wherein the damage tracks have a diameter of 5 μm or less; and etching the material in an acid solution to enlarge the plurality of damage tracks to produce a plurality of through-holes in the material, wherein a Thiele modulus of the etching is less than or equal to 2.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the material is transparent to at least one wavelength in a range from 390 nm to 700 nm.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the material can transmit at least 70% of at least one wavelength in a range from 390 nm to 700 nm.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising mechanically agitating the acid solution during etching.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of through-holes have a diameter of 20 μm or less and a spacing between adjacent through-holes of at least 10 microns.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein:
the plurality of through-holes comprise an opening in the first surface, an opening in the second surface, and a waist located between the opening in the first surface and the opening in the second surface, a diameter of the waist is at least 50% of the diameter of the opening in the first surface or the opening in the second surface, and a difference between a diameter of the opening in the first surface and a diameter of the opening in the second surface is 3 μm or less.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the acid solution comprises a surfactant.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the damage tracks are made in an aperiodic pattern.

9 - 24 . (canceled)

25 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulsed laser beam produces at least 500 damage tracks/sec.

26 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulsed laser beam produces at least 1,000 damage tracks/sec.

27 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the material is a glass.

28 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the material is fused silica.

29 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the etching is at a rate of less than about 5 microns/min.

30 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulsed laser beam has a burst energy density in a range from 25 microJoules/mm of line focus to 125 microJoules/mm of line focus.

31 . The method of claim 1 , wherein pulses of the pulsed laser beam are produced in bursts of at least two pulses separated by a duration in a range of between about 1 nsec and about 50 nsec, and wherein a burst repetition frequency of the bursts is in a range of between about 1 kHz and about 650 kHz.

32 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the at least two pulses are separated by a duration of 20 nsec plus or minus 2 nsec.

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Marjanovic Sasha
• Piech Garrett Andrew
• Shanmugam Shyamala
• Pons Siepermann Carlos Alberto
• Tsuda Sergio
• Varga Zsigmond
• Wagner Robert Stephen

Classifications

• Y10T428/24273

  including aperture · CPC title

• Y10T428/24322

  Composite web or sheet · CPC title

• B23K26/402

  involving non-metallic material, e.g. isolators · CPC title

• B23K26/0617

  and with spots spaced along the common axis · CPC title

• B23K26/53

  for modifying or reforming the material inside the workpiece, e.g. for producing break initiation cracks · CPC title