Development of practical system for laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation (LIPAA) for micromachining of glass materials

The laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation (LIPAA) process developed by us, in which only a single conventional pulsed laser is used, makes it possible to perform high-quality and high-speed glass microfabrication. We developed the LIPAA system, which uses the second harmonic of a diode pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, for practical use in industry. The system comprises two optical components, which are the objective lens for high-resolution microfabrication and the galvano mirror type scanner for high-speed patterning of complicated microstructures. In addition to surface microstructuring of the glass, selective metallization of the glass by the LIPAA process, followed by electroless Cu plating, is demonstrated .