JP2785666B2 - Laser processing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laser processing method for performing hole processing, pattern processing, cutting, and the like using a laser beam.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the application of lasers to machining has been actively performed mainly on carbon dioxide gas lasers and YAG lasers, and these have been established as machining methods especially in the machining field for metal plates using them. I have. More recently, processing applications of excimer lasers having an oscillation wavelength in the ultraviolet region have been studied. This excimer laser is suitable for fine processing because its oscillation wavelength is shorter than that of a carbon dioxide laser, a YAG laser or the like. The processing mechanism of the processing device using this excimer laser is non-thermal processing using high photon energy (so-called ablation processing) instead of conventional thermal processing.
In addition, since the processing is performed by pulse oscillation, the processing amount can be easily controlled by the number of pulses.

[0003] Further, in view of mass production, a processing apparatus in which one laser has many processing heads has been developed. An example will be described with reference to an example disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-184488. FIG. 5 shows the configuration. The beam 22 oscillated from the laser oscillator 21 is
3. The input end 2 of the optical fiber 25 via the condenser lens 24
The light is condensed on 6. Each input end 26a-d is protected by a cylindrical protector 27,
It is arranged on the axis and fixed. Further, the holder 28 is X-
It is attached to a Y table 29, and can move relative to the focused beam 22. The output end 30 of the optical fiber 25 is fixed by a cylindrical holder 31. The holder 31 is provided with a condenser lens 32 for condensing a beam emitted from the output end 30. Further, the holder 31 is attached to the variable movement device 33. On the other hand, a beam breaker 35 (shutter 36) is provided immediately after the laser oscillator 21, and is connected to and controlled by the control unit 37 together with the laser oscillator 21, the XY table 29, and the movement variable device 33. In this configuration, the holder 28 is moved from the XY table 29 to the beam 2.
The beam can be sequentially introduced into the input end 26 of the optical fiber 25 by moving the beam relatively to the position 2, and a plurality of processing points can be processed, thereby improving the productivity. Moreover, the beam 22 is blocked by the shutter 36 during the movement between the input terminals, so that the peripheral portion can be prevented from being damaged.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-193794 discloses a conventional example in which a laser beam is divided by a plurality of fibers and a plurality of processings can be performed simultaneously. FIG. 6 shows the configuration. Light emitted from the laser 601 is introduced into the mixing rod 603 via the condenser lens 602. The other end of the mixing rod 603 has many optical fibers 6
A bundle of optical fibers 605 is further divided into small bundles of optical fibers 605, which are connected to and fixed to the respective heads 606, and a focusing lens 608 is provided at the end thereof. The positioning table 611 has a vertically movable structure so that the processing material 609 can be positioned on the focal point of the laser beam.
Further, the processing head 606 is held at an arbitrary position on the control table 607 in advance, and the contour is controlled by the NC control device 610. With such a device, it is possible to perform simultaneous processing by the number of heads continuously.

[0005]

In the configuration shown in the conventional example of FIG. 5, processing of a plurality of workpieces can be performed, but it is not suitable for mass production because the beam is sequentially transmitted and processed. Further, in the configuration shown in the conventional example of FIG. 6, the beam is divided by a plurality of fibers, and the heads corresponding to the number can be used to simultaneously process the same number of heads continuously. It is extremely difficult to deal with a workpiece of a size because the head is fixed.

As a specific example, when drilling a printed circuit board, a considerably large amount of drilling is required. Moreover, in general, a printed board has a master board of a predetermined size, from which a plurality of identical patterns are taken out. The number obtained from one master substrate differs depending on the size of the pattern. In addition, the master substrate is required to have not only a repetition of the same pattern but also a reference hole or a reference pattern for mask positioning, handling, and the like, which may be required to be processed by laser. When drilling a printed circuit board in this way, it not only improves productivity by simultaneously processing with multiple heads, but also supports various board pattern sizes, and in some cases, differs from the same pattern Special processing was also required, and it was difficult to cope with the conventional technology.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser processing method comprising: a first direction and a second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction; Preparing a work piece including a plurality of work areas arranged in directions, and setting a plurality of work heads each capable of irradiating a laser beam to the work piece in the first direction and / or the first work direction. And a laser beam emitted from a processing head that does not correspond to the processing area in a state where the positioning is performed by relatively moving in the direction of 2. A processing step of processing the workpiece by irradiating the processing area with laser light from a head, and maintaining the positional relationship between the plurality of processing heads positioned in the positioning step after the processing step is completed. And said A moving step of moving the plurality of processing heads relative to the workpiece in the first direction and / or the second direction; and a next step of processing the workpiece after the moving step is completed. A laser processing method having a processing step and performing processing of a predetermined processing pattern on the workpiece,
Alternatively, as in claim 2 , a first direction and the first direction.
A process of preparing a workpiece including a plurality of processing regions arranged in a second direction substantially orthogonal to the direction of the workpiece, and a plurality of processing heads each capable of irradiating a laser beam to the workpiece. A positioning step of relatively moving in a first direction and / or the second direction to position at least a part of the plurality of processing heads in the same processing region, and a state where the positioning is performed in the positioning step; Blocking the laser light emitted from at least one of the processing heads located in the same processing area, irradiating the processing area with laser light from another processing head located in the same processing area, A processing step of processing the workpiece, and after the processing step, maintaining the positional relationship between the plurality of processing heads positioned in the positioning step, the plurality of processing heads with respect to the workpiece. Serial has a first direction and / or movement path moving relative to said second direction, after said moving step ends, the next processing step of processing the workpiece,
A typical example is a laser processing method for processing a predetermined processing pattern on the workpiece.

[0008]

According to the present invention, not only a plurality of simultaneous processings can be performed by the above configuration, but also a processing with a different processing size and a special processing can be flexibly handled.

[0009]

【Example】

(Embodiment 1) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a laser processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. The laser oscillator 101 generates a pulse beam 102 using an excimer laser. The pulse beam 102 is introduced into a beam shaping unit 103 composed of a color edoscope, and shaped into a rectangular beam having a uniform intensity distribution. The shaped rectangular beam is introduced into a bundle fiber 104 composed of a plurality of optical fibers. At the input end of the bundle fiber 104, the fibers 105 are arranged in a fine structure in a substantially rectangular beam shape so as to minimize beam loss. Each fiber 105
Are connected to the processing head 108, respectively. The processing head 108 has a beam cutoff mechanism 106 using a solenoid immediately after the tip of the fiber 105, and can perform beam cutoff control as needed. Beam blocking mechanism 1
06, there is a reduction projection lens 107 and a fiber 1
The shape of the tip of 05 is reduced and projected and processed into that shape.
The processing head 108 is mounted on a processing head mounting bar 109.

FIG. 2 shows the processing head portion of the laser processing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention viewed from above to further facilitate the description of the present embodiment. Four processing heads 10
8-1A, 108-1B, 108-1C, 108-1D
Are fixed to the processing head mounting bar 109-1. Similarly, the processing head mounting bars 109-2, 109
-3 and 109-4 each have four processing heads 108-
2, 108-3 and 108-4 are fixed. The processing head mounting bar 109 has two slide guides 111.
-1 and 111-2 make it possible to move though it is one axis. The means for movement are independent pulse motors 112-1 to 112-4 and ball screws 110-1 to 110-1.
110-4. A workpiece 113 made of a printed circuit board material is arranged below the processing head 108, and is fixed to the XY stage 114.

Next, the operation will be described. The size of the work 113 made of the printed board material is determined by the master board. In the case of FIG. 2, 16 identical printed circuit boards can be processed. First, the processing head mounting bar 10 is arranged so that the processing heads 108 are arranged at a pitch of 16 patterns.
9 is moved and fixed by the respective pulse motors 112. However, in this case, the pitch in only one axis direction can be changed, so that the fixing direction of the head 108 is adjusted to this fixed pitch in the pattern designing stage. When the pitch is determined, the XY stage 114 is moved in accordance with the hole position data of the pattern on the printed circuit board, and laser oscillation is performed in conjunction with the movement to perform hole processing. In this case, the beam blocking mechanism 106 of the 16 processing heads 108 is released, and the same pattern 116 is formed by passing the beam.
Are formed. Also, a processed product 11 of a printed circuit board material
Reference numeral 3 requires a reference hole (or reference pattern) 115 for alignment required in a subsequent process. For processing, the beam blocking mechanism of all processing heads except one head is operated to block the beam. By doing so, the reference hole 115 can be processed without damaging other parts of the master substrate.

Embodiment 2 Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a plan view of a processing head of a laser processing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
A description will be given of a case where the size of each pattern changes. This is an example in which eight printed circuit board patterns 117 are obtained from the master substrate work 113. The processing head mounting bars 109-1 and 109-3 are arranged at the pattern pitch of the printed circuit board, and the beams of the processing heads 108-2 and 108-4 fixed to the remaining processing head mounting bars 109-2 and 109-4. Is blocked by the beam blocking mechanisms 106-2 and 106-4. In the processing, the XY stage 114 is moved according to the hole position data of the pattern on the printed circuit board, and laser oscillation is performed in conjunction with the movement to perform the hole processing. Thereby, eight printed boards can be obtained from the master board.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 4 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example in which 12 pieces are taken as in the third embodiment. Processing head mounting bar 109-1
Is removed from the processing area, the beam is cut off, and the rest is fixed at a designated pitch and processed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, there is provided a laser processing apparatus comprising a laser oscillator, a beam shaping means, a plurality of optical fibers, a processing head, and a XY two-axis stage mechanism for mounting a workpiece. By providing a beam cutoff mechanism and making the processing head uniaxially movable, not only can multiple simultaneous processing be performed,
It has a feature that it can flexibly cope with processing with different processing sizes and special processing. The effect is extremely large when mass production processing of many kinds is actually considered.

In this embodiment, the processing head is fixed in one axis direction. However, if this direction is also movable, the structure becomes complicated, but the degree of freedom is further improved. In this embodiment, the processing head is fixed at the time of processing, and the XY stage on which the workpiece of the printed circuit board material is fixed is moved according to the hole position data to perform the processing. By controlling the beam cutoff mechanism of the head in conjunction with it, it is possible to minimize the loss of time other than the time required for actual drilling and shorten the processing time, and further improve the productivity. Has features.

[0017]

As described above , according to the structure of the present invention,
Not only enables simultaneous processing of multiple, even flexibly cope in different processing and special processing of processing size, yet there are characteristics that the loss time of the processing can be minimized, the actual multi-product production The effect is extremely large when processing is considered.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a laser processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a processing head of the laser processing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a processing head of a laser processing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a processing head of a laser processing apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a conventional laser processing apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing another conventional laser processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 21 Laser oscillator 22 Laser light 23 Reflecting mirror 24 Condensing lens 25 Optical fiber 26 Incident end 27 Input end 28 Holder 29 XY table 30 Output end 31 Output end holder 32 Condenser lens light 33 Movement variable device 35 Laser light cutoff Instrument 36 Shutter plate 37 Control unit 40 Workpiece 101 Laser oscillator 102 Laser beam 103 Beam shaping unit 104 Bundle fiber 105 Fiber 106 Beam blocking mechanism 107 Reduction projection lens 108 Processing head 109 Processing head mounting bar 110 Ball screw 111 Slide guide 112 Pulse motor 113 Workpiece 114 XY stage 115 Reference hole (reference pattern) 116 Processing pattern area 117 Processing pattern area 118 Processing pattern area 601 Laser 602 Condensing lens 03 mixing rod 604 optical fiber 605 small bundle optical fibers 606 head 607 control table 608 focus lens 609 workpiece 610 NC controller 611 positioning table of

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Keiichiro Yamanaka 3-10-1, Higashi-Mita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside Matsushita Giken Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takuhiro Ono 3 Higashi-Mita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa No. 10-1 Matsushita Giken Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-57-163201 (JP, A) JP-A-61-193794 (JP, A) JP-A-5-309488 (JP, A) Hei 4-94172 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B23K 26/00-26/08

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] A step of preparing a workpiece including a plurality of workpiece regions arranged in a first direction and a second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction; But
A plurality of processing heads capable of irradiating laser light in the first direction
And / or relative movement in the second direction for positioning
Positioning process, and positioning in the positioning process
Irradiation from the processing head that does not correspond to the
Cuts off the laser beam that is
The workpiece is irradiated with laser light from the
A processing step of processing the workpiece, and after the processing step,
The plurality of machining heads positioned in the positioning process
While maintaining the positional relationship between the
Number of processing heads in the first direction and / or the second direction
And the end of the travel process
And a subsequent processing step of processing the workpiece,
Laser for processing a predetermined processing pattern on the workpiece
Processing method. 2. A process of preparing a workpiece including a plurality of workpiece regions arranged in a first direction and a second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction, and each of the steps includes: But
A plurality of processing heads capable of irradiating laser light in the first direction
And / or relatively move in the second direction to
At least a part of the processing head
The positioning process to be set and the positioning
Machining head located in the same area to be machined
The laser beam emitted from at least one of the
From the other processing head located in one processing area,
Irradiating the processing area with laser light to process the workpiece
Processing step, after the processing step, in the positioning step
Positional relationship between the plurality of processing heads in a positioned state
The plurality of processing heads with respect to the workpiece
Relative to the first direction and / or the second direction
A moving stroke to move, and after the moving stroke,
And a next-stage processing step of processing the workpiece.
A laser processing method for processing a predetermined processing pattern. 3. A process for forming a reference hole in a workpiece.
And the processing step of the reference hole corresponds to the reference hole.
Laser light emitted from a processing head other than the processing head
3. The laser according to claim 1, wherein the reference hole is machined by cutting off.
The processing method. 4. A processing head and the processing head are provided with a laser beam.
2. The optical fiber according to claim 1, wherein said optical fiber is cut off from said optical fiber.
4. The laser processing method according to any one of items 1 to 3. 5. The laser beam according to claim 1, wherein the laser beam is an excimer laser beam.
The laser processing method according to any one of claims 1 to 4.