Newport Corporation today announced that its Spectra-Physics Lasers Division has unveiled its state-of-the-art high power picosecond Pantera(TM) laser.
This diode-pumped solid-state laser uses an innovative fiber amplifier platform to deliver 12 W of stabilized UV power at a wavelength of 355 nm. The Pantera provides picosecond laser pulses at a very high repetition rate of 80 MHz, and offers excellent mode quality (TEM00). Newport's Pantera laser is ideal for a wide range of OEM applications, particularly in solar cell, flat panel display, printed circuit board and semiconductor manufacturing.
"We are very excited to unveil the Pantera laser, the first in a series of laser products that will incorporate our new fiber-based platform," said Michael Kauf, Marketing and Business Development Manager for Newport's Fiber Laser Business Group. "We believe that this laser offers a unique combination of advantages to enable our customers to manufacture more complex devices with smaller feature sizes, with higher throughput and a lower cost per part."
The Pantera UV laser uses a Master Oscillator Power Fiber Amplifier (MOPFA) design with a mode-locked seed laser, a powerful fiber amplifier and highly-efficient frequency conversion. This design provides a unique combination of high UV power, excellent beam quality and unprecedented reliability. The fiber amplifier is powered by fiber coupled, hermetically sealed diodes and is not affected by external influences such as mechanically-induced misalignment, making the Pantera ideal for demanding industrial applications.
Kauf continued, "The Pantera laser was specifically designed for industrial and OEM customers requiring high precision, high quality and high throughput material processing. The laser's ability to deliver UV wavelength light in picosecond pulses minimizes thermal damage to the material, and enables higher resolution and higher quality work. The high pulse repetition rate ensures smooth processing results even at speeds of multiple meters per second. In addition, with its unmatched output power, the laser enables higher throughput and lower cost per watt."
Kauf concluded, "With this robust set of features, we believe that the Pantera laser is an ideal solution for a wide range of applications such as laser direct imaging, high-speed laser processing, scribing and ablation of thin layers for solar cell manufacturing. We also believe that it is an outstanding choice for applications such as machining and cutting of glass for the flat panel and automotive industry, scribing and dicing of wafers for semiconductor manufacturing, and cutting, structuring and ablation of dielectrics and isolators in the electronics industry."
Newport shipped the first Pantera laser in April of 2007. Today, the laser is in evaluation with select customers and first product sales are slated for later this year. For more information please visit the company's website at http://www.newport.com.
ABOUT NEWPORT CORPORATION
Newport Corporation is a leading global supplier of advanced-technology products and systems to customers in the scientific research, microelectronics manufacturing, aerospace and defense/security, life and health sciences and precision industrial manufacturing markets. Newport's innovative solutions leverage its expertise in high-power semiconductor, solid-state and ultrafast lasers, photonics instrumentation, sub-micron positioning systems, vibration isolation, optical subsystems and precision automation to enhance the capabilities and productivity of its customers' manufacturing, engineering and research applications. Newport is part of the Standard & Poor's SmallCap 600 Index and the Russell 2000 Index.