High-speed cleaving of glass and polymers using ultrafast fiber laser

Glass cleaving by Bessel-like beams is one of the leading techniques providing high processing throughput and high edge quality. With the possibility to apply it to different transparent materials, this method has great potential in the high-volume production of flat panel displays, camera windows, medical devices, and others. The principle of glass cleaving is the controlled weakening of a hard transparent material by the induction of microcracks along a tight, elongated focus. These microcracks are oriented in a predefined, constant direction, limiting the flexibility of round shape fabrication. In contrast to dynamic beam manipulation techniques, the regime of direction-independent cutting was achieved through proper temporal pulse shaping. The setup does not consist of any active components in the beam path. The obtained quality and process speed are comparable with other, more complex laser cleaving techniques. Additionally, the successful cutting of polymers is presented, which are difficult to separate by the Bessel beam due to the limited possibility of microcrack generation.