Laser through-hole drilling and laser cutting in teflon

We report a novel technique for laser high-speed drilling and cutting in teflon films. The new laser drilling surpasses the conventional techniques in simplicity, throughput and spatial resolution. The laser cutting and drilling process consists of three simple steps. First, a thin absorbing layer (in this case 300 Å of gold) is deposited on the teflon to allow for laser absorption. Second, the drilling is performed by pulsed-laser irradiation at the rate of one hole per pulse. The irradiation process does not completely open the holes in which debris still remain. Third, the ultrasonic cleaning in water is used to remove the modified and weakly bound material inside the drilled holes, leaving behind 50 m diameter through holes in 25 m thick teflon sheets. The drilling process-window is well mapped. The cutting process is obtained by fast scanning the laser beam at laser powers above a threshold value. This new technique is desirable for packaging because of its drilling speed as high as 60 000 holes per minute, its fast cutting and its low laser equipment cost.