RSL 5000 Laser Sublimation System CO² Laser

Precise laser cutting and removing of thin foils is becoming an omnipresent task in today‘s electronic production industry. For example in modern SAW technology, SMD chips are encapsulated in thin polymer foil. To guaranty hermetical sealing, the foil needs to bond with the chip substrate, usually ceramic. To ensure this, the foil is removed by means of Laser Sublimation around the chip itself. This has the advantage of sealing the package itself while simultaneously removing undesired foil within dicing lanes at very high precision.

There are multiple other applications where foil or foil like material has to be cut or removed at very high precision and little impact to the substrate material.

To serve this growing market worldwide, Ricmar is now offering the state-of-the-art Laser Sublimation system RSL 5000. A tool designed to meet industries demands in terms of stability, accuracy, user friendliness and UPH.

Using equipment such as the RSL 5000 from Ricmar, cutting and removing of thin foils becomes an economical, repeatable and reliable process. The process itself is readily adaptable to many kinds of similar cutting and stripping tasks.

The RSL 5000 is set up on a versatile baseframe which allows for multiple options regarding I/Osystems and interfaces to adjacent systems. The heart of the system is a high precision X/Y-stage that performs the feed motion while cutting. By being able to incorporate different kind of laser sources, the process can be optimized for different kind of foil and substrate material combinations.

The standard laser source is a pulsed CO2 Laser with up to 15kW of pulsed output power. Pulsed laser sources have the advantage of generating very little heat transfer to the usually heat sensitive substrate material by literally evaporating the foil instantly. By using sophisticated beam shaping optics a vast portfolio of different cutting geometries can be realized. To ensure the safety of personal, the laser beam is encapsulated all the way up to the working surface. The system itself therefore is only a Class 1 laser product and can be operated safely without further safety installations on the customers end.

The high precision X/Y-stage is mounted on a rigid granite base to ensure temperature stability and best possible vibration damping. The linear motor driven stage uses linear encoders in combination with servo controllers to ensure positioning accuracies in the sub micron range by simultaneously reaching high acceleration and speed values.

The RSL 5000 can handle substrates with sizes of up to 100 mm x 180 mm. Without modifications, foils of up to 100 microns in thickness can be cut at speeds of up to 1000 mm/s. Achieved accuracies for this process are ±10 μm (3 Sigma) on a 100 mm by 100 mm area.

The tool is adaptable to different kind of foil materials by using different kind of laser sources to ensure the best possible cutting performance.

The system uses an industrial PC to ensure its speed and reliability wich is running a Windows™ operating system. The user friendly GUI allows for easy and foolproof operation and programming, which saves valuable time during production and product changeovers. Due to its modular design, the software can easily be extended.

The software has been developed with user friendliness, reliability, stability and adaptability in mind. It allows for easy product setup and all different kind of working modes. Furthermore, the software can easily be extended to meet any customers need, thereby offering the greatest possible flexibility.

One of RICMARs strengths is its fast and highly reliable image recognition software, which is also incorporated into the RSL 5000. Recognition of any given optical labelling standard as well as alignment marker is carried out at state-of-the-art precision in the twinkling of an eye.

• Different Laser Sources
• Different travel of X/Y-stage
• Interfaces to I/O system
• Customization of system