Mar 5 2011
Laser Services, an ISO and AS-9100 registered firm specializing in precision laser cutting, scribing, welding, etching and drilling services, has released the first installment of its Technical Briefs series on laser techniques.
The series educates engineers about the advantages of various laser techniques such as laser ablation over conventional machining methods.
Laser ablation
Laser ablation can produce precise and clean trenches around solder pads. The method is capable of removing only the necessary top layers of a material, resulting in a trench exposing the mid-layers. Exposure of the sensitive base materials is also eliminated. Laser ablation can be performed over and through the PCB edges without affecting the base materials.
Laser ablation can repair PCBs without damage. It can also be used to form chamfers around cutouts in dielectric and copper materials. The accuracy of the laser ablation helps form solder dams with minimum labor and material than other solder damming processes. High isolation can be achieved in view of the laser’s fine resolution.
Laser ablation is suitable for both large production runs and small-piece orders. The laser machining systems, offered by Laser Services, are compatible with computer-aided-design and computer-aided-manufacturing circuit files. High processing speed of computer-controlled equipment results in low production expenditure and fast turnaround times.