System design and parametric study for laser machining of advanced ceramics

The first objective of this project was to design, integrate and test a fully automated multi-laser micromachining system for use on advanced ceramics. The second objective was a parametric study on the process parameters for the 2-D machining of alumina and aluminum nitride ceramics.; Experiments included producing laser machined lines and single layer pockets on the surface of alumina and aluminum nitride ceramics with an ultra-violet (UV) and near-infrared (NI) laser. The results for the NI laser showed a significant difference between the two materials, with a maximum MRR of 0.055 mm 3/s in alumina and 0.094 mm3/s in aluminum nitride.; Both materials produced similar wall angles with the UV laser with an angle of about 86° at pulse overlaps of 95%. The NI laser produced steeper walls with a maximum of 89° in alumina and 88° in aluminum nitride. The wall angle was virtually independent of frequency for both lasers.; The surface roughness was minimum at the lowest pulse overlap tested (70%) for both lasers and both materials. A minimum surface roughness for alumina of 0.94 mum was found using the UV laser while a minimum roughness for aluminum nitride was 0.88 mum using the NI laser. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...