JPH11238934A - Pulse laser oscillator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform processing at a high speed by setting the rectangular energy output generated by laser light incident to an optical resonator as one unit, maintaining a plurality of the units having the different combining constitution of the outputs in a control part, and thereby calling the optimum energy and irradiating the energy on various kinds of materials. SOLUTION: Electrodes 22 and 23 are provided in a discharge tube 21 formed of dielectric such as glass. The rectangular energy is outputted from an external microwave power supply part 1. A laser beam 30 is emitted from an output mirror 28 constituting the optical resonator of a discharging space 27. A unit setting signal 2 instructs the unit pattern to be outputted to the microwave power supply part 1 from a control part 3 wherein a plurality of unit patterns are stored. The rectangular output of the unit pattern set by the application of an outer signal 4 is generated. The number of the rectangular energies to be outputted is determined by the unit pattern. Even if the outer signal 4 is repeatedly applied at the high speed, the stabilized energy can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pulsed laser oscillator for outputting a pulsed laser beam used for drilling holes in a resin or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional laser oscillation device used by us is shown in FIG. In this figure, 21 is a discharge tube formed of a dielectric material such as glass, and 22 and 23 are electrodes provided on the discharge tube. Reference numeral 24 denotes a power supply for setting a peak value and an output time from the outside.
It outputs rectangular energy of 0 KHz.

The power supply 24 receives a peak value setting signal 25 and a pulse width signal 26 from outside.

[0004] Reference numeral 27 denotes a discharge space in the discharge tube 21 sandwiched between the electrodes 22 and 23, which is filled with a laser gas. Reference numeral 28 denotes an output mirror, and 29 denotes a final stage mirror.
8. The last stage mirror 29 is disposed at both ends of the discharge space 27,
It constitutes an optical resonator. A laser beam 30 is emitted from the output mirror 28 (hereinafter, the behavior of a laser beam is referred to as a laser beam, and the energy value of the laser beam is referred to as laser energy).

[0005] The operation of the laser oscillation device configured as described above will be described. The power supply 24 has an externally set peak output signal 25 (setting 5 Kw) and a pulse width signal 26.
Based on the setting (250 μs), a rectangular energy is output at 20 KHz during a period of 250 μs with a peak energy of 5 Kw. The external pulse width signal is approximately 100H.
It is repeatedly applied every z (10 msec) and performs the same operation. The power output is the discharge space 2 between the electrodes 22 and 23.
7, a glow discharge is generated. The laser gas in the discharge space 27 is excited by obtaining the energy of the glow discharge, is brought into a resonance state by the optical resonator formed by the output mirror 28 and the last-stage mirror 29, and is transmitted through the output mirror 28 to emit the laser beam 30. You.

[0006] Discharge occurs only when energy is applied. However, as is generally known, a laser beam has a sawtooth-like time waveform of 20 KHz due to the transition time of the laser gas, and the energy of the first power supply section is generated several times. After being absorbed by the laser gas (laser delay time), the laser output gradually rises (laser rise time), resulting in a stable behavior.

FIG. 9 shows the relationship between the pulse width signal, the output of the power supply unit, and the laser beam. The laser beam 30 is output about 100 times per second by the pulse width signal 26, and one or a plurality of laser beams are irradiated as laser energy on a resin or the like to perform hole processing.

[0008]

In the pulse laser oscillation apparatus, stability, variability and steep rising behavior of laser energy, and fine adjustment of laser energy are strongly required in view of processing performance. There were challenges.

(1) As shown in FIG. 10, "A" between a pulse width signal supplied from the outside and a 20 KHz output of the power supply unit is used.
Since ND "(match width) is output from the power supply unit, in the case of a delicate set time, a change in time causes a change of one rectangular energy, and the laser energy changes in a stepwise manner, resulting in a delicate time. Setting and energy adjustment are not possible.

(2) There are a wide variety of materials to be processed,
Materials such as glass and resin with different physical properties having different melting points are mixed.
Or, when processing the above-mentioned materials, it is necessary to irradiate the optimum peak output and energy, respectively, but it is not possible to set the pulse width setting signal to a time of 100 μs or less, to stabilize and vary It was difficult.

(3) FIG. 11 shows the relationship between the power output and the laser beam. The energy from the power supply is absorbed by the laser gas, and the laser beam is output with a delay. In addition, the delay time changes depending on the stop time of the energy supply from the power supply unit. If the stop time changes, it is difficult to stabilize the laser energy for each laser beam.

(4) As shown in FIG. 9, when the laser gas is absorbed and the energy is constantly supplied from the power supply, the laser light gradually increases its output and needs time (at the time of laser rising) until it becomes stable. It was difficult to obtain a steep rise.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and has a simple structure to achieve stable laser energy,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a pulse laser oscillation device capable of fine adjustment of energy and outputting a laser beam most suitable for processing various materials having a steep rising behavior.

[0014]

In order to achieve this object, the present invention comprises a power supply for outputting rectangular energy, and an optical resonator for receiving the output of the power supply and generating laser light. The first means includes a control unit for storing the plurality of rectangular energy outputs as one unit and storing a plurality of units having different combinations of the rectangular energy outputs.

The second means has an external operation signal for outputting / stopping the output of the power supply, and an adjusting section for detecting the stop time of the external operation signal and increasing the operation time of the external operation signal. is there.

The third means has an external operation signal for outputting / stopping the output of the power supply, and a minimum value for discharging the first few rectangular energy values of the plurality of rectangular energy to be output. It is assumed that.

The fourth means outputs / outputs the power from the power supply unit.
It has an external operation signal for stopping, and varies the last rectangular energy value of the plurality of rectangular energy to be output.

[0018]

According to the first means, it is possible to retrieve and irradiate optimal energy conditions known for various materials from a plurality of units stored in a control unit,
It has the effect that optimal processing can be performed at high speed.

According to the second means, the idle time of the power supply unit is measured, the operation time is appropriately added, and the same laser beam can always be output, so that the laser energy can be stabilized.

According to the third means, the energy required to be absorbed by the laser gas is supplied first, so that a steep rising laser beam shape can be obtained.

According to the fourth means, the energy of the latter half of the sawtooth laser waveform is adjusted, and the laser energy can be freely changed while keeping the laser peak output value constant.

(Embodiment 1) An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same parts as those in the related art are denoted by the same symbols, and description thereof is omitted.

1 is a microwave power supply for outputting rectangular energy, 2 is a unit setting signal, 3 is a controller storing a plurality of unit patterns, and 4 is an external signal for operating the selected unit pattern. It is.

The unit setting signal 2 indicates a unit pattern to be output from the control unit 3 to the microwave power supply unit 1. Upon application of the external signal 4, the microwave power supply 1 generates a rectangular output having a set unit pattern. The number of rectangular energies output from the microwave power supply unit 1 is determined by the unit pattern, and there is no single energy change due to the set time as in the related art. Stabilize. Further, the output waveform of the microwave power supply unit 1 and the peak value of the rectangular energy, which indicates the laser beam, can be set in advance, so that the optimum laser energy can be set for various materials. It can be implemented.

(Embodiment 2) Next, the second means will be described with reference to FIG.

5 is a microwave power supply for outputting rectangular energy, 6 is an external operation signal for operating / stopping the microwave power supply, and 7 is an operation time in response to the external operation signal and operation stop time. It is an adjustment unit that generates a signal to increase.

The external signal 6 instructs the microwave power supply 5 to output a rectangular energy via the adjustment unit 7. Adjustment unit 7
When the stop time of the external signal 7 increases, a signal obtained by adding a time value corresponding to the laser delay shown in FIG. 10 to the external signal 7 is output to the microwave power supply unit 5. As a result, the same value of the laser energy can be obtained regardless of the stop time.

(Embodiment 3) Next, the third means will be described with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a clamp unit for setting the setting signals for the first few peaks of the peak value setting signal 25 to the lowest value. The peak setting signal 25 passes through the clamp unit 8 and the pulse width signal 26
Directly instructs the microwave power supply unit 5 to output. The microwave power supply 5 outputs the minimum energy that can be discharged in the first few shots, and thereafter outputs the energy based on the external setting.

FIG. 5 shows the output of the microwave power supply and the behavior of the laser beam output. A minimum power required for the absorption of the laser gas is first supplied from the microwave power supply 5, and then the energy required for laser generation is supplied. Therefore, a steep laser beam behavior can be obtained without delay of the absorption of the laser gas. Becomes possible.

(Embodiment 4) Next, a fourth means will be described with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 9 denotes an energy fine adjustment setting signal for finely adjusting the laser energy, and reference numeral 10 denotes a fine adjustment unit which receives the fine adjustment setting signal 9 and reduces the end of the peak value setting signal.

Since the output of the power supply section is rectangular as shown in FIG. 11, the laser energy value changes discretely, but as shown in FIG. 7, by changing the last rectangular energy value of the microwave power supply 5, The laser energy value (total energy value) can be continuously varied while the peak value of the laser energy is kept constant.

In each of the above embodiments, the power supply is 20K.
A microwave power source outputting in Hz was used. It is known that microwaves have a high frequency and discharges are likely to concentrate.However, if energy is injected in a rectangular shape, it is difficult for discharges to concentrate and a great effect can be obtained. effective.

Although the description has been made at the frequency of 20 KHz, the effect was confirmed up to 100 KHz. Increasing the frequency requires cost, but increasing the frequency will provide further effects in energy variability and stability.

[0036]

As described above, in the pulse laser oscillation device of the present invention, a plurality of power supply output patterns are determined in advance as in the first means, or according to the stop time as in the second means. Good drilling by increasing the operation time, or minimizing the first rectangular energy of the power output as in the third means, or varying the last rectangular energy value of the power output as in the fourth means This provides an excellent effect that laser energy capable of being obtained can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a pulse laser oscillation device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an output pattern diagram of a power supply unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a pulse laser oscillation device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a pulse laser oscillation device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram related to a power supply unit and a laser beam according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram of a pulse laser oscillation device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram related to a power supply unit and a laser beam according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional pulse laser oscillation device.

FIG. 9 shows a pulse width signal of a conventional pulse laser oscillation device,
Power supply and laser beam correlation diagram

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a power supply unit and a laser beam behavior of a conventional pulse laser oscillation device.

FIG. 11 is a laser beam output behavior diagram of a conventional pulse laser oscillation device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Unit setting signal 3 Control unit 4 External signal 6 External operation signal 7 Adjustment unit 8 Clamp unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masahiko Kubo 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Inside Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A power supply unit for outputting rectangular energy,
An optical resonator for inputting an output of the power supply unit and outputting a laser beam, storing the plurality of rectangular energy outputs as one unit, and storing a plurality of units having different combinations of the rectangular energy; A pulse laser oscillation device provided with a control unit. 2. A power supply unit for outputting rectangular energy,
An optical resonator that receives the output of the power supply unit and generates laser light, detects an external operation signal for outputting / stopping the output of the power supply, and detects a stop time of the external operation signal; A pulse laser oscillation device provided with an adjustment unit for increasing the operation time. 3. A power supply unit for outputting rectangular energy,
An external operation signal for outputting / stopping the output of the power supply unit; and an optical resonator for receiving the output of the power supply unit and generating a laser beam. A pulse laser oscillation device that sets several rectangular energy values to the minimum value for discharging. 4. A power supply unit for outputting rectangular energy,
An external operation signal for outputting / stopping the output of the power supply unit; and an optical resonator for inputting the output of the power supply unit to generate a laser beam, wherein the last of a plurality of rectangular energy output from the power supply unit is output. A pulse laser oscillator that changes the energy value of a rectangular shape.