TWI611855B - Optimization of high resolution digitally encoded laser scanners for fine feature marking - Google Patents

Abstract

The laser scanning system and its usage are disclosed in this article. In some embodiments, a laser scanning system can be used to ablate or non-ablatively scan a surface of a material. Some embodiments include a method of scanning a multilayer structure. Some embodiments include a translation-focus adjustment optical system for changing the laser beam diameter. Some embodiments utilize a 20-bit laser scanning system.

Description

Optimization of a high-resolution digitally encoded laser scanner for fine feature pattern marking

This disclosure relates generally to laser patterning, and more specifically, to the optimization of a high-resolution digitally encoded laser scanner for fine feature pattern marking.

Cross-reference to related applications

This application is a partial continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 14 / 030,799 and PCT Application No. PCT / US2013 / 060470, both of which were filed on September 18, 2013 and claim May 2, 2013 Priority filed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 818,881 and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 767,420 filed on February 21, 2013.

This application is a partial continuation of PCT Application No. PCT / US2014 / 017841 filed on February 21, 2014. This application claims US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 818,881 filed on May 2, 2013. And the priority of US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 875,679 filed on September 9, 2013.

This application is a partial continuation of PCT Application No. PCT / US2014 / 017836 filed on February 21, 2014. This case claims US Patent Application No. 14 / 030,799 filed on September 18, 2013 and Rights of US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 818,881 filed on May 2, 2013 and US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 767,420 filed on February 21, 2013.

This application claims the right to US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 875,679 filed on September 9, 2013.

The previous applications PCT / US2013 / 060470, PCT / US2014 / 017836, PCT / US2014 / 017841, 14 / 030,799, 61 / 818,881, 61 / 767,420, and 61 / 875,679 are fully incorporated by reference herein.

The strong demand for smaller and more portable computing devices has created substantial innovation in many corresponding fields, including touch screens for smartphones and tablets. However, there is still much room for improvement in the fields of touch sensor patterning and printed electronics. Existing technologies (including photolithography, screen printing, and laser processing) have various disadvantages, partly due to the number of necessary processing steps and the cost and time required to switch between the various processing steps. In addition to the costs associated with various processing steps, photolithography and screen printing techniques also contain many disadvantages, including the high costs associated with expensive consumables and toxic waste. The conventional laser processing technique also has many disadvantages. Unfortunately, current technology still has to produce more efficient methods and systems for handling printed electronics and touch sensors. Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for improved methods and systems for dealing with such devices without the attendant disadvantages.

The purpose of this disclosure is to meet the aforementioned needs by providing an innovative laser process format that changes the conductivity of the substrate surface without ablating its material. Therefore, according to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method for processing a transparent substrate is provided. The method includes the steps of generating at least one laser pulse whose laser parameters are selected for being set on the transparent substrate A non-ablative change of a conductor layer into a non-conductor feature pattern; and This pulse is directed to the conductor layer.

In some embodiments, the laser parameters include a pulse length of less than about 200 ps and a pulse energy density of less than about 1.5 J / cm ² . In some embodiments, the spot size of the pulse can be changed in the range of 5 to 100 μm by changing the position of the substrate relative to the incident pulse. In some embodiments, the transparent substrate includes a protective film disposed on a surface of the substrate opposite to the conductive layer, and the protective film is not removed during a non-ablation process of the conductive layer. . In some embodiments, the transparent substrate is made of a flexible polyethylene terephthalate material. In some embodiments, the non-conductor feature pattern is difficult to visually recognize or has very low visibility for the naked eye of the observer compared to adjacent untreated conductive layers. In some embodiments, the pulse is guided through the transparent substrate to the conductor layer. In some embodiments, the conductor layer includes a silver nanowire. In some embodiments, the surface roughness of the conductive layer does not substantially change after being processed with the laser pulse. In some embodiments, the conductive layer becomes non-conductive in the treated area via a selective oxidation mechanism.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for changing a sheet resistance of a silver nanowire conductor substrate on a flexible transparent substrate is provided. The method includes: generating at least one laser pulse having A laser parameter for increasing the range of the sheet resistance of the conductor substrate is selected without ablating the silver nanowires; and the pulse is directed to the conductor substrate to provide the sheet resistance. In some embodiments, the flexible transparent substrate includes a protective film disposed on a surface of the substrate opposite to the silver nanowire conductor substrate, and the protective film does not burn on the conductor substrate. Removed by laser pulse during etch process. In some embodiments, it is more difficult for the observer's naked eye to treat regions processed by a plurality of laser pulses compared to adjacent unprocessed regions. For visual discrimination or with very low visibility.

In a further aspect of the present disclosure, a method for processing a transparent substrate with a pulsed laser beam is provided. The substrate is characterized in that a conductive material is disposed on a selected surface thereof. The conductive material can utilize a conductive material having a selected parameter. Pulsed laser beam undergoes non-ablative change to a non-conductive material, the method includes the steps of: generating at least one laser pulse having the selected parameters; and directing the pulse to the conductive material on the substrate To change into a non-conducting material.

In some embodiments, the transparent substrate includes a protective film disposed on a surface of the substrate opposite to the conductive material, and the protective film is not removed during a non-ablation process of the conductive material. . In some embodiments, the non-conductive material is difficult to visually discern or has very low visibility to the naked eye of the observer compared to the untreated conductive material.

In a further aspect of the present disclosure, a method for processing a conductive material layer of a flexible transparent substrate with a pulsed laser beam, the conductive material layer being characterized by being exposed to a laser pulse having a selected laser pulse parameter Will cause the conductive material to become non-conductive without ablating the material layer, the method comprising the steps of: generating at least one laser pulse with the selected laser pulse parameters; and directing the pulse to the The conductive material layer of the substrate. In some embodiments, the conductive material layer includes silver nanowires.

In another aspect of this disclosure, the target surface can be treated with laser pulses, making it difficult to visually discern the processed area and adjacent unprocessed areas unless it is substantially enlarged. In another aspect of the present disclosure, a protective layer that is generally disposed on the surface of the substrate to be processed and removed during processing will remain intact during processing and will not be removed from the substrate.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method for laser patterning a multilayer structure is provided. The multilayer structure includes a substrate, a first layer disposed on the substrate, and a first layer disposed on the first layer. Two layers, and a third layer disposed on the second layer, the method comprising: generating at least one laser pulse, the laser parameters of which are selected for non-ablatively changing a selected portion of the third layer The conductivity of the selected layer becomes non-conductive; and the pulse is directed to the multilayer structure, wherein the conductivity of the first layer does not substantially change due to the pulse.

In some embodiments, the first layer and the third layer include silver nanowires. In some embodiments, the first layer includes ITO. In some embodiments, the second layer is a photoresist having insulating properties. In some embodiments, the second layer is configured to protect the first layer from being affected by the conductivity change characteristic of the pulse. In some embodiments, the second layer is configured to scatter or absorb energy from the pulse. In some embodiments, the threshold for changing the conductivity of the first layer is higher than the third layer. In some embodiments, the first layer has been overheated in order to increase its threshold for changing the conductivity.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for forming a multilayer stack structure includes: providing a substrate; depositing a first layer on the substrate, the first layer being conductive; and laser patterning the first layer , 俾 makes a selected portion of the first layer non-conductive; depositing a second layer on the first layer, the second layer is insulating; depositing a third layer on the second layer, the third layer The layer is conductive; and the third layer is patterned by a non-ablation laser so that selected portions of the third layer become non-conductive without substantially changing the conductivity of the first layer.

In some embodiments, the first layer and the third layer include silver nanowires. In some embodiments, the first layer includes ITO. In some embodiments, the second layer has insulating properties. Photoresist. In some embodiments, the second layer is configured to protect the first layer from changing conductivity during non-ablation laser patterning of the third layer. In some embodiments, the second layer is configured to scatter or absorb energy during non-ablative laser patterning of the third layer. In some embodiments, the threshold for changing the conductivity of the first layer is higher than the third layer. In some embodiments, the method further includes the step of heat treating the first layer after the first layer has been patterned by a laser. In some embodiments, the laser pattern of the first layer is non-ablative.

In some embodiments, an optical processing system includes: an objective lens positioned to direct a processing optical beam to a target surface; and a scanning system positioned to scan the processing optical beam across The target surface. A focus adjustment optical system includes a focus adjustment optical element and a focus actuator, and the focus adjustment optical element is placed to direct the optical beam to the objective lens. The focus actuator is coupled to the focus adjustment optics so as to translate the focus adjustment optics along an axis of the objective lens to maintain the processing beam as the processing beam is scanned across the target surface. Focus. A beam diameter actuator is placed to translate the focus adjustment optics to define a processing beam diameter at the target surface. In some examples, a controller is coupled to the focus actuator to maintain focus of the processing beam during scanning across the target surface. In other examples, a substrate platform includes a platform actuator that is positioned to position the target surface along the axis of the objective lens. In a further example, the controller is coupled to the beam diameter actuator and the platform actuator, and the controller translates the focus adjustment optical system and the substrate based on a selected beam diameter. platform. In a special example, the beam diameter actuator generates a stepwise translation of the focus adjustment optical system and can be translated to at least two positions along the axis of the objective lens, the at least two positions and having at least two positions Corresponding focused beam with larger diameter to smaller diameter ratio below Diameter correlation: 2: 1, 3: 1, 4: 1, 5: 1, 7.5: 1, or 10: 1. Generally, the beam diameter actuator is placed to translate the focus adjustment optical system so as to define at least two processing beam diameters, the at least two processing beam diameters corresponding to a silver paste conductor boundary and silver nanometers Ablation and non-ablation treatment of wire or indium tin oxide conductor layer, or vice versa. In some examples, a laser generates the processing beam, and a laser controller selects the optical beam power based on the processing beam diameters. In some examples, the focus actuator is coupled to the focus adjustment optical element for translating the focus adjustment optical element along the axis of the objective lens in order to compensate for the field curvature of the objective lens.

The method includes translating a focus adjustment optical element along an axis of the objective lens when processing a substrate with an optical beam from an objective lens, so as to keep a processing beam focused on a target. A processing beam diameter is selected by translating the focus adjustment optical element along the axis of the objective lens. In some examples, the processing beam diameter is selected from at least two preset values, wherein the preset values have a larger diameter to a smaller diameter ratio of at least 1.5: 1. In other examples, the target is a composite having a conductor layer and a conductor boundary, wherein the at least two preset values include a first processed beam diameter and a second processed beam diameter, which are selected respectively. Used to process the conductor layer and the conductor boundary. In additional examples, the diameters of the first processing beam and the diameter of the second processing beam are selected so that the conductor layer is non-ablative and the conductor boundary is ablative, or vice versa. In typical applications, the processing beam diameters are selected to process one or more of a silver nanowire or indium tin oxide conductor layer and a silver paste conductor boundary. In some embodiments, the target is translated along the axis of the objective lens based on the selected processing beam diameter. In a representative example, at least two processing beam diameters are selected to process a conductor layer and a conductor boundary of a composite substrate, wherein the The processed beam diameters are selected from at least two preset values, wherein the preset values have a larger diameter to a smaller diameter ratio of at least 2: 1. In some examples, the first processing beam diameter and the second processing beam diameter are selected such that the conductor layer is non-ablated and the conductor boundary is ablated, or vice versa. In some examples, a method further includes selecting a first optical beam power and a second optical beam power corresponding to the first processing beam diameter and the second processing beam diameter.

In some embodiments, a method includes: receiving a pattern description stored in at least one computer-readable storage medium, the pattern description including a definition of at least one feature pattern associated with a scan vector; and using the The pattern description is based on guiding a laser beam over a fixed scanning area, wherein the laser beam is guided over the scanning area with a lateral displacement resolution less than 1/20 of a laser beam diameter.

In some embodiments, a method includes: selecting a laser beam diameter; placing a substrate so that it is scanned at a scan plane associated with the selected laser beam diameter; and by A substrate to scan a laser beam having the selected laser beam diameter and expose the substrate to the laser beam, wherein the laser beam is at the scanning plane to correspond to a laser beam smaller than the laser beam An angular scan increment of 1/10 of the diameter is scanned.

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes: a laser configured to generate a processing beam; an optical system; and a scan controller configured to receive a scan pattern, the scan The pattern is defined as a plurality of scan vectors and is configured to control the optical system so as to guide the processing beam to a scanning area having a preset beam diameter. In some cases, the scanning controller is configured to control the optical system to scan the processing beam relative to the scanning area, so as to generate an exposure scanning vector, so that the exposure scanning The lateral offset between the scan vector and an expected scan vector is less than 1/10 of the preset beam diameter.

The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings.

100‧‧‧laser scanning system

102‧‧‧Laser source

104‧‧‧ laser beam

106‧‧‧ Light

108‧‧‧ light

110‧‧‧focus control lens

112‧‧‧shell

114‧‧‧Focus adjustment mechanism

115‧‧‧Location

116‧‧‧ Objective lens assembly

117‧‧‧Location

118‧‧‧first reflective surface

119‧‧‧First ammeter

120‧‧‧Second reflective surface

121‧‧‧second ammeter

122‧‧‧ substrate

124‧‧‧optical axis

126‧‧‧ Focus

130‧‧‧translation platform

131‧‧‧translation platform

140‧‧‧control system

200‧‧‧ Objective

204‧‧‧plane

206‧‧‧ curved surface

208‧‧‧ axis

214‧‧‧Focus Surface

216‧‧‧focusing surface

300‧‧‧ complex

302‧‧‧laser beam

303‧‧‧laser beam

304‧‧‧ laser beam

305‧‧‧Bottom

306‧‧‧ substrate

307‧‧‧ around lips

308‧‧‧ surrounding conductor boundary

310‧‧‧Conductor material layer

312‧‧‧Workbench

314‧‧‧Threaded Rod

316‧‧‧ hollow tube

318‧‧‧ base unit

400A‧‧‧First focusing plane

400B‧‧‧First focus plane

402A‧‧‧Second focus plane

402B‧‧‧Second focus plane

404A‧‧‧Third focus plane

404B‧‧‧ Third focus plane

406‧‧‧laser beam

406A‧‧‧laser beam configuration

406B‧‧‧Laser beam configuration

406C‧‧‧laser beam configuration

408‧‧‧laser beam

408A‧‧‧laser beam

408B‧‧‧laser beam

408C‧‧‧laser beam

410‧‧‧laser beam

410A‧‧‧laser beam

410B‧‧‧laser beam

410C‧‧‧laser beam

412‧‧‧laser scanning system

600‧‧‧control system

602‧‧‧ laser beam parameter control interface

603‧‧‧laser beam delivery system

604‧‧‧platform control interface

605‧‧‧laser source

606‧‧‧ ammeter control interface

607‧‧‧ processor

608‧‧‧ ammeter control interface

609‧‧‧Memory

610‧‧‧First platform control interface

612‧‧‧Second platform control interface

614‧‧‧Ammeter

615‧‧‧Reflective surface

616‧‧‧ ammeter

617‧‧‧Reflective surface

618‧‧‧ substrate platform

628‧‧‧Focus adjustment assembly

628A‧‧‧Focus on adjusting assembly position

629‧‧‧Motion control device

630‧‧‧ Motion Control Device

700‧‧‧ Computing Environment

710‧‧‧processing unit

715‧‧‧Graphics or collaborative processing unit

720‧‧‧Memory

725‧‧‧Memory

730‧‧‧Basic configuration

740‧‧‧Storage

750‧‧‧ input device

760‧‧‧Output device

770‧‧‧Communication connection

780‧‧‧Software

782‧‧‧laser beam software module

784‧‧‧Substrate Platform Motion Module

786‧‧‧ Beam Scanning Module

788‧‧‧field focus correction module

790‧‧‧ Beam Diameter Module

802‧‧‧platform

806‧‧‧Lens

806A‧‧‧Lens Position

808‧‧‧Focus Assembly

808A‧‧‧fixed position

810A‧‧‧Assembly stop

810B‧‧‧Assembly stop

810C‧‧‧Assembly stop

812‧‧‧ axis

814‧‧‧Objective

1010‧‧‧ Pulsed Laser Beam

1012 ‧ ‧ goals

1014‧‧‧Transparent substrate

1016‧‧‧ protective layer

1018‧‧‧Conductor material layer

1020‧‧‧After processing part

1022‧‧‧Horizontal stripes with treated silver nanowires

1024‧‧‧ the first horizontal line

1026‧‧‧Second horizontal line

1028‧‧‧area

1030‧‧‧Horizontal depth contour

1032‧‧‧Horizontal depth contour

2010‧‧‧Multi-layer stack structure

2012‧‧‧ substrate layer

2014‧‧‧First floor

2016‧‧‧Second floor

2018‧‧‧Third floor

2020‧‧‧multi-layer stack structure

2021‧‧‧ Pulsed Laser Beam

2022‧‧‧Selected parts

2024‧‧‧Selected parts

2026‧‧‧First floor

2028‧‧‧First floor

2030‧‧‧multi-layer stack structure

3000‧‧‧digital laser scanning system

3002‧‧‧Focus plane

3004‧‧‧Focus plane

3006‧‧‧Focus plane

3008‧‧‧laser beam

3008A‧‧‧laser beam

3008B‧‧‧laser beam

3008C‧‧‧laser beam

3010‧‧‧laser beam

3010A‧‧‧laser beam

3010B‧‧‧laser beam

3010C‧‧‧laser beam

3012‧‧‧laser beam

3012A‧‧‧laser beam

3012B‧‧‧laser beam

3012C‧‧‧laser beam

3050‧‧‧ axis

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a laser beam for processing a substrate according to an aspect of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a flow block diagram of a method according to an aspect of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a top view of a laser beam patterned substrate according to an aspect of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an image of superimposed profilometer data with unprocessed areas and processed areas according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

5A and 5B are XPS relationship diagrams of an untreated region and a processed region, respectively, according to an aspect of the disclosure.

The XPS relationship diagram of the selected type is shown in the relationship diagram of FIG. 5B shown in FIG. 6.

7A to 7C are cross-sectional views of an exemplary stacked structure at various manufacturing steps according to an aspect of the present disclosure.

8A to 8C are cross-sectional views of an exemplary stacked structure at various manufacturing steps according to another aspect of the present disclosure.

9A to 9C are cross-sectional views of an exemplary stacked structure at various manufacturing steps according to another aspect of the present disclosure.

An exemplary laser-based processing system is shown in FIG. 10.

The displacements associated with the beam diameter adjustment shown in FIG. 11.

The system shown in FIG. 12 uses a composite material such as that shown in FIG. 10 for processing.

The system shown in Fig. 13 is associated with the focal areas of different beam diameters.

Figure 14 illustrates a method for processing composite materials.

An exemplary processing system shown in FIG. 15 includes a control system and a laser scanning system.

An exemplary computing environment shown in FIG. 16 is configured to control substrate processing with focus control and beam diameter adjustment.

A representative assembly for adjusting the beam diameter is shown in FIG.

The system shown in FIG. 18 is a laser scanning system and three focusing planes.

19A and 19B each show an input pattern and a pattern actually scanned by the laser scanning system.

20A and 20B each show several straight lines scanned by a laser scanning system.

The system shown in Figure 21 is used for an input pattern of a laser scanning system.

An exemplary method is shown in FIG. 22.

I. General discussion

As used in the scope of this application and patent application, unless clearly stated otherwise in the text, the singular forms "a" and "the" include plural forms. In addition, "include" means "comprise". Furthermore, the term "coupled" does not exclude the presence of intervening elements between coupled items.

The systems, devices, and methods described in this article should not be considered as limiting significance. Instead, this disclosure is all about novel and non-obvious features and perspectives on the various disclosed embodiments and their various combinations and subcombinations of each other. The disclosed systems, methods, and devices are not limited to any particular perspective or feature or combination thereof, and the disclosed systems, methods, and devices do not require any one or more specific advantages to exist or solve any Or more specific questions. Any operating principle is intended to help explain, and the disclosed systems, methods, and equipment are not limited to these operating principles.

For ease of presentation, some of the operations in the disclosed method are described in a special sequential order; however, it should be understood that unless the specific language proposed in this article requires a special ordering method, this description method covers re- arrangement. For example, the operations described sequentially in this article may be rearranged or performed concurrently in some cases. In addition, for the sake of simplicity, the accompanying drawings do not show various ways in which the disclosed systems, methods, and devices can be used in conjunction with other systems, methods, and devices. In addition, the description sometimes uses terms such as "produce" and "provide" to describe the methods that have been disclosed. These terms are high-level abstractions of the actual operations being implemented. The actual operation corresponding to these terms will be changed depending on the particular implementation method and can be easily understood by those skilled in the art.

In some examples, values, procedures, or equipment will be referred to as "lowest", "best", "minimum", or the like; however, it should be understood that these descriptions are intended to indicate Choose among many functional alternatives used, and these choices are not necessarily better, smaller, or better than other options.

For the purpose of proper description, "top", "above", "below", "bottom", and similar terms are used herein to describe specific feature patterns of the disclosed embodiments. These terms are not intended to indicate a particular alignment, but instead are used to indicate relative positions.

As used herein, the laser beam diameter is usually based on the lowest order TEM ₀₀ mode or 1 / e ² intensity with the same power distribution. "Axis" or "optical axis" refers to the axis used to couple optical elements. These axes are not necessarily a single straight line segment. On the contrary, they can also include a plurality of line segments corresponding to the bending and folding of the mirror, the chirp, or other optical elements. As used herein, a lens refers to a single lens element or a multi-element (composite) lens.

II. Non-Ablative Laser Patterning

Flexible substrates have the potential advantage of not being expensive to manufacture; however, conventional processes have not achieved these efficiencies. Accordingly, the various examples described herein are directed to the manufacture of processed composite films for different applications, such as transparent conductors for touch-sensitive displays. For example, the step for processing the flexible composite films can be configured so that the touch-sensitive area is formed in the flexible composite film, thereby making the touch-sensitive areas suitable for use in various display devices. . Other suitable applications for processed substrates would typically include display devices, as well as LED phosphor enhancement, other commercial and consumer lighting applications, wearable electronics, and photovoltaic special batteries. However, flexible substrates are particularly suitable for mobile consumer displays, where a thin, durable, and flexible form factor is highly desirable. Also, by applying the progress described in this article, flexible film laser patterning can be achieved with a complete and unchanged protective layer, thereby achieving true roll-to-roll processing. In some examples, the substrate can also be rigid.

Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which is a cross-sectional view of a pulsed laser beam 1010 having selected laser pulse parameters for processing a target 1012 according to one aspect of the present disclosure. As shown, the target 1012 includes a transparent substrate 1014. A protective layer 1016 is provided on one side of the transparent substrate and a thin conductive material is provided on the other side opposite to the one side. Layer 1018. In many examples, the substrate 1014 has a constant or fixed thickness, for example, falling in the range between 50 μm and 200 μm, which often depends on the substrate and the application (material) used. In a further example, additional layers may be provided in conjunction with the substrate 1014 and associated protective layers 1016 and thin layers 1018, for example, forming a composite substrate or a substrate having one or more other materials or layers disposed therein.

In some examples, the conductive material layer 1018 includes a plurality of silver nanowires arranged randomly. The silver nanowires of the thin layer 1018 are typically fixed to the substrate 1014 in a polymer matrix (eg, an organic overcoat). The laser beam 1010 transmits a laser pulse to the thin layer 1018 and creates a processed portion 1020, wherein the conductivity of the material of the layer 1018 will substantially change. In this article, "conductivity" and "non-conductivity" have meanings commonly understood in the technology of printed electronics, touch sensor patterning, or optoelectronics, which will be presented in more detail below.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart block diagram of an exemplary method 1100 according to an aspect of the present disclosure. In a first step 1102, a substrate is provided with a thin conductive layer disposed thereon. The substrate is preferably transparent and flexible. However, other substrates can be processed according to this document without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a protective layer or film is disposed on the other surface of the substrate, for example, opposite to the conductor layer, and the substrate can be removed without removing the protective layer or film. Be processed. In a second step 1104, at least one laser pulse is generated, and its laser pulse parameters are selected to achieve a non-ablative treatment of the thin conductor layer on the substrate, so that the The treated portion becomes non-conductive and makes the treated portion equally low visibility. In a third step 1106, the at least one laser pulse is directed to the substrate. The processed substrate has a conductivity different from that of the untreated substrate, so that special sensing regions and electrical paths can be formed on the substrate. By prudence Selecting the characteristics of the laser pulse (which includes pulse parameters such as: pulse length, pulse energy density, pulse energy, spot size, pulse repetition rate, and scanning speed), the substrate can be processed to make its electrical characteristics predictive The design method is changed, and the substrate and the associated protective layer and conductor layer are not substantially damaged or structurally changed due to the ablation process. Accordingly, in the example using a protective layer (for example, the protective layer 1016), the protective layer need not be removed during processing of the substrate.

Although the beam 1010 in FIG. 1 is generally shown as being sent to its focus; other beam geometric configurations and intensity distributions can also be used, including: unfocused beams; straight beams; square or rectangular beams Beams; and beams having a uniform, substantially uniform, or preselected intensity profile across one or more transverse axes. In some examples, the beam delivery system providing the beam 1010 is also configured to translate the beam 1010 relative to the target 1012, so that the beam can form a linear feature pattern, an area feature pattern, And other geometric features. In other examples, the target 1012 can be translated to form a geometric feature pattern while the beam delivery system and the beam 1010 remain fixed in one or more axes. In yet other examples, both the target 1012 and the beam 1010 can be translated. Also, in some examples, the beam 1010 illuminates the target 1012 from the opposite direction, so that the beam 1010 will propagate through the protective layer 1016 (if present) and the substrate 1014 so as to cause non-ablation to the conductor layer 1018 effect.

As used herein, ablative treatment is understood to mean the substantial removal of material from a target by evaporation, photochemical modification, or other means caused by an incident optical beam. Similarly, non-ablative processing is understood to mean that the existing structural feature topography of the target surface remains intact after processing, even if the electrical or other characteristics of the target are changed. In some cases, a non-ablative surface and adjacent untreated areas It is difficult to visually identify the physical area. In some examples, the non-ablative treatment of silver nanowires does not remove or substantially does not remove the silver nanowires. A cover coating covering the silver nanowires is removed from the silver nanowires by a laser process, and the process is not considered to be ablative relative to the silver nanowires.

Although the laser pulse of the laser beam 1010 causes the processed portion 1020 to become non-conductive, the visible characteristics of the processed portion 1020 remain substantially unchanged. Therefore, the difference between the processed portion 1020 and the unprocessed portion 10185 is not significant without the aid of an image enhancement mechanism that includes multiple viewing angles, such as a microscope. Referring to FIG. 3, a microscope image of a top view of a substrate (eg, substrate 1014) processed according to a representative disclosed method under a monochromatic illumination at a magnification of 1500 times is shown. As shown in FIG. 3, the processed silver nanowire horizontal stripes 1022 (which are hardly visible to the naked eye even under significant magnification) shown in the figure are about 30 μm wide. Laser pulse parameters for providing excellent non-ablative results shown streak 1022 comprises: a pulse length of about 50ps, a pulse energy density of about 0.17J / cm ² and about 40μm l / e ² spot size, A scan rate of about 1 m / s, a pulse-to-pulse overlap of greater than 90%, a total pulse energy of about 12 μJ, and a pulse repetition rate of about 100 kHz.

The values of the laser pulse parameters mentioned above are just examples, and other parameters can be selected and optimized for different targets and systems. In addition, the parameter values can also be scaled for various processing speeds, provided that the pulse overlap and pulse energy are kept within the parameter range suitable for generating non-ablative non-conductor effects. Therefore, the pulse repetition rate can be increased to 1 MHz, tens of MHz, or higher in order to increase the processing speed, provided that the necessary laser and beam delivery architecture can be configured accordingly. Pulse length can be selected to be shorter or longer, and other parameters (e.g., pulse energy density) can be adjusted to ensure that the target is treated non-ablatively Form a non-conductive characteristic pattern. For example, possible pulse lengths include less than about 1 ps, 100 ps, 200 ps, 500 ps, 800 ps, or 1 ns. Other parameters can be changed and optimized in the same way.

After the configuration, the two parts of the target 1012 above and below the fringe 1022 are electrically isolated from each other due to the change in the sheet resistance caused by the pulse from the laser beam 1010 to the processed region 1020, thereby conducting electricity Flow effectively forms a barrier. When the material specifications change, other parameters can be carefully selected using tentative or other optimization methods in order to achieve a non-ablative conductivity change view of the cost-disclosure process, while maintaining the treated area relative to Ultra-low visibility of the processing area. The laser beam 1010 can also be modified to have a shape other than Gaussian, for example, flat-top, super-Gaussian, etc. Laser systems capable of operating within the laser parameter range of this disclosure typically include pulsed fiber lasers, pulsed fiber amplifiers, and diode-excited solid-state lasers.

According to this, the method and method disclosed herein can be used to form shapes and patterns on the substrate, so as to achieve the purpose of electrical isolation from adjacent unprocessed areas. In addition to the need for masks, photoresist, etched grooves, replacement, or additional protective film, the use of lasers or scanning lasers provides a highly configurable process that allows sheet-to-sheet -sheet), roll to sheet, roll to roll (R2R), or roll to finished sensor. Scanning lasers can be programmed with an image file to easily modify the process for various pattern geometries and substrates. In addition, by using the ultra-low visibility process viewpoint described in this article, the purpose of shortening cycle time can be achieved even in conventional laser or chemical processes. For example, in a conventional laser process, in order to reduce the visibility of the ablatively treated areas, the additional areas must undergo unnecessary treatment. In order to provide a uniform pattern effect, the overall visibility of the ablative marks to the naked eye of the user is effectively reduced. Because the processing point of view of this disclosure results in a mark of ultra-low visibility, first, the additional process time associated with padding in multiple regions to reduce visibility is no longer needed and therefore results in faster and therefore More cost-effective manufacturing process.

The transparent substrate 1014 can be composed of various materials including glass, plastic, or metal. A typical substrate tends to be made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) because of its low cost and many advantageous features, such as transparency, flexibility, elasticity, ease of manufacture, etc. The PET substrate can be manufactured using one or more methods known to those skilled in transparent conductor film processing technology, and in some examples, it can be provided on a roll suitable for roll-to-roll processing. A non-exhaustive list of other possible substrate materials includes glass, polyethylene naphthalate, polyurethane, and various metals. The substrate 1014 shown in FIG. 3 has a thickness of about 0.13 mm and is made of polyethylene terephthalate. Within this thickness range, PET and other suitable materials are flexible and can be stored on rolls with a preset width, shipped on rolls with a preset width, or configured to be processed on rolls with a preset width. The substrate 1014 is generally transparent in a visual display application, so that when the substrate 1014 is later applied to a display device (not shown in the figure), light from the display device can propagate through the substrate 1014 to the The user of the device.

In a typical example of a flexible transparent conductor film, in the laser pattern processing of the transparent conductor film, a rough stock is provided in the form of a roll or a flat sheet configuration. Therefore, the raw The raw materials will be processed raw materials suitable for use in various applications, such as optoelectronic devices. In some examples, the transparent conductor film material includes silver nanowires (also known as SNW or AgNW), which are deposited to a predetermined thickness or conductivity, both of which are usually produced by It is set to increase or decrease the density of silver nanowires in the stage. In other examples, the transparent conductive film may include other materials or have multiple layers. Transparent conductor films can find end uses on rigid surfaces, such as rigid glass or composite screens. Silver nanowires are very suitable for flexible substrates because their material properties (e.g., conductivity and structural integrity) are under various types of bending loads (for example, fixed bending, cyclic deformation, or flexibility) Sex) are very consistent.

The protective layer 1016 can also be made of different materials suitable for providing protection from damage caused by particulate matter, abrasion, and scratching. The thickness of the protective layer 1016 is usually selected so as to be suitable for protecting the underlying substrate 1014. One suitable thickness is about .04 mm; however, other thicknesses can also be used. Because the point of view of the present disclosure does not require removal, recoating, or replacement of the protective layer 1016 during manufacturing, a protective layer 1016 including various materials may be used. A protective film 1016 made of polyethylene or polyethylene terephthalate is suitable to provide the necessary protection of the surface of the substrate 1014. In the conventional process, the protective layer (for example, the protective layer 1016) must be removed before the substrate 1014 is processed and reattached or recoated after the substrate 1014 is processed to avoid the strong heat provided by the laser during processing. Destroying the protective layer will cause huge additional processing time and cost. As disclosed herein, a substrate 1014 can be processed without having to remove and re-attach or re-apply the protective layer 1016, thereby potentially reducing the cost of innovation in processing transparent substrates (including flexible transparent substrates).

FIG. 4 is an identical image of the top view of the target substrate 1014 shown in FIG. 3, with additional surface roughness data superimposed thereon. The first horizontal line 1024 extends approximately along the middle of the processed stripe 1022. The second horizontal line 1026 is adjacent to the first horizontal line 1024 by about 30 μm, and extends along an untreated area 1018 and is parallel to the first horizontal line 1024. An area 1028 at the bottom of the image contains lateral depth contours along individual parallel lines 1024, 1026 (transverse depth profile) 1030, 1032. These depth profiles overlap each other and show minimal variation relative to each other in a common range of about 0.2 μm depth, which further confirms the non-ablation effect associated with the process according to the point of view of this disclosure. Although other surfaces may have a large range of depth variation, it depends on the quality of the substrate and the conductor surface layer; however, the variation between the treated area and the untreated area is as follows under the non-ablation process The smallest.

The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of the unprocessed region (FIG. 5A) and the processed region (FIG. 5B) of the system substrate 1014 shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B shows the bond energy ( binding energy). XPS usually helps explain the element content of the target surface and the material changes that may be caused by various external inputs. With some special exceptions, the results shown for the untreated and treated regions are essentially the same in the bond energy range. The bonding energy spikes of AgMNN, Ag 3p3 / 2, Ag 3p1 / 2, and Ag 3d appear in the treated region 1020, which generally indicates the presence of oxidized silver. For example, referring to FIG. 6, a graph of the tethering energy versus kinetic energy and photon energy centered at about 368 eV is shown and generally represents oxide formation in the treated region. In addition, comparison of various carbon species, chlorine, fluorine, oxygen, and silicon signal data makes one think of the existence of a polymer matrix with silver nanowires embedded in it before and after processing by these laser pulses. Therefore, the organic coating may be selectively removed from the silver nanowires, which may cause the nanowires to become oxidized and present non-conductive characteristics, while the rest of the coating is It remains essentially intact. In general, silver nanowires will exhibit better properties than conventional transparent conductor films such as indium tin oxide (ITO). The transparent conductor layer 1018 is usually about tens of nanometers thick. Silver nanowires tend to be about 10 μm long and have a diameter in the range of several nanometers to tens of nanometers; however, other dimensions can also be used.

Laser parameters suitable for non-ablative laser processing according to the method of the present disclosure are selected based in part on the relevant characteristics of the selected material to be processed. For example, changing the thickness of the underlying substrate, thin conductor layer, etc. can affect the possible distribution of laser pulse heat or cause other time-dependent effects that need to be mitigated. These optimized process parameters will result in processed areas or feature patterns with ultra-low visibility compared to adjacent or separated unprocessed areas. One of the optimized regions will include the laser pulse wavelength. The wavelength used to process the sampled light shown in the images in this article is 1064nm, and is usually the better wavelength, because this longer wavelength light will interact with the transparent substrate, protective film, or other nearby materials The material layer reacts to a lesser extent than a shorter wavelength. Other technologies (e.g. photolithography) often require more difficult or expensive wavelengths to be produced, such as wavelengths in the visible or UV spectrum.

By processing the target substrate according to the methods herein, various advantages over conventional manufacturing techniques for processing transparent substrates can be realized, and these advantages will be understood in accordance with this disclosure.

III. Laser Patterning of Multilayer Structures

Touch sensors typically include a film composite composed of various materials that are stacked together through one or more deposition or stacking processes. A variety of stacked configurations can be used, and various intermediate processing steps can be performed during the fabrication of these multiple layers. For example, the different multilayer structures described herein can arrange the layers in a different order than disclosed in the figures. In some embodiments, the deposited material layer can be disposed on one or both sides of a substrate. In a further embodiment, the pulsed laser beam can be incident from an opposite direction as shown. Different types of materials can be used for these different layers of some convenient paradigms discussed herein. It should be understood that many different configurations and variations can also be used, all of which are It is within the scope of this disclosure.

Reference is now made to FIGS. 7A to 7C, which illustrate the different stages of a method of non-ablation laser treatment of a multilayer material stack in accordance with the present disclosure. A multi-layer stack structure 2010 is provided in FIG. 7A and includes a substrate layer 2012 made of PET or other suitable materials. The structure 2010 includes a conductive first layer 2014 disposed on the substrate layer 2012. The first layer 2014 contains silver nanowires or another suitable conductive material. A second layer 2016 is disposed on the first layer 2014, which may be made of photoresist or other suitable insulating materials. Before the insulating layer 2016 is disposed on or formed on the first layer 2014, the structure 2010 is first subjected to a non-ablation laser treatment to form a selected non-conductive area, which includes a straight line, a pattern, or Are other geometries, and this non-ablative treatment is described further below.

The insulating layer 2016 may include one or more dopants that increase the ability of the layer 2016 to scatter or absorb incident laser energy in order to reduce the amount of residual energy density incident on the first layer 2014. In FIG. 7B, a third layer 2018 is disposed on or formed on the second layer 2016 of the multilayer structure 2010. This third layer usually contains silver nanowires; however, other suitable conductor materials can be used as long as non-ablative conductivity modifications can be made. One of the better layering methods is silver nanowires in both the first layer 2014 and the third layer 2018. Silver nanowires offer several advantages over other materials, including their ability to be processed by non-ablation lasers (as described herein) and their ability to retain their characteristics under deformation (eg, bending loads). For example, silver nanowires are ideal for flexible touch screens. In FIG. 7C, a pulsed laser beam 2021 is generated with process parameters suitable for non-ablative modification of the target. The pulsed laser beam 2021 is directed to a structure 2010 for laser processing the structure 2010. The pulsed beam 2021 will react with the third layer 2018 of the structure 2010 without ablating the third layer 2018. Selected section 2022. By reacting with the laser pulse from the pulsed beam 2021, the conductivity of the selected portion 2022 is changed to non-conductivity. At the same time, a selected portion 2024 of the first layer 2014 below the third layer 2018 will not experience the same change in conductivity. In addition, the selected portion 2024 will not be ablated by the beam 2021. The insulating layer 2016 can help mitigate the pulsed energy received by the first layer 2014 in order to prevent a material reaction with conductivity modification from occurring.

A laser processing method of a multilayer stack structure 2020 according to another aspect of the present disclosure is shown in FIGS. 8A to 8C. In FIG. 8A, a stacked structure 2020 includes a substrate 2012 and a first layer 2026. The first layer 2026 preferably includes silver nanowires. The first layer 2026 is thermally treated (indicated by a downward arrow) to modify the conductivity change threshold characteristic of the first layer 2026 upward. Therefore, after thermal treatment, the modification threshold of the conductivity of the first layer 2026 will be higher. In some examples, this conductivity modification threshold is related to the ablation threshold of the material. Various temperatures for thermal treatment can be used and the temperature can be selected or adjusted to provide different effects on the first layer 2026. In some examples, thermal treatment is performed using an oven, laser, or other thermal treatment mechanism. The thermal treatment of the first layer 2026 will cause the density of the organic coating layer covering the silver nanowires in the first layer 2026 to change, thereby increasing the critical value of its energy density. In FIG. 8B, the structure 2020 will perform successive stacking steps to provide a second layer 2016 on top of the first layer 2026 and a third layer 2018 on top of the second layer 2016. In FIG. 8C, a pulsed laser beam 2021 is generated with process parameters suitable for non-ablative modification of the target. The pulsed laser beam 2021 is directed to a structure 2020 for laser processing the structure 2020. The pulsed beam 2021 will react with the third layer 2018 of the structure 2020 without ablating selected portions 2022 of the third layer 2018. By reacting with the laser pulse from the pulsed beam 2021, the conductivity of the selected portion 2022 is changed to non-conductivity. Simultaneously, A selected portion 2024 of the first layer 2026 located below the third layer 2018 will not experience the same change in conductivity. In addition, the selected portion 2024 will not be ablated by the beam 2021.

Referring to FIGS. 9A to 9C, a laser processing method of a multilayer stack structure 2030 according to an aspect of the present disclosure is shown. In FIG. 9A, a stacked structure 2030 includes a substrate 2012 and a first layer 2028. The first layer 2028 preferably includes indium tin oxide. The first layer 2028 is subjected to an ablation process, so that parts of the first layer 2028 are removed through an ablation laser process. A second layer 2016 is disposed on the first layer 2028. In FIG. 9B, a third layer 2018 is disposed on or formed on the second layer 2016. The material composition of the third layer 2018 is different from that of the first layer 2028. A better system of the third layer 2018 includes a conductive silver nanowire. Due to the material difference, the characteristic of the threshold value of the conductivity change of the third layer 2018 is different from that of the first layer 2028. In FIG. 9C, the structure 2030 is processed by a pulsed laser beam 2021. The pulsed laser beam 2021 is generated to have process parameters suitable for non-ablative modification of the target. The pulsed laser beam 2021 is directed to a structure 2030 for performing laser processing on the structure 2030. The pulsed beam 2021 will react with the third layer 2018 of the structure 2030 without ablating selected portions 2022 of the third layer 2018. By reacting with the laser pulse from the pulsed beam 2021, the conductivity of the selected portion 2022 is changed to non-conductivity. At the same time, a selected portion 2024 of the first layer 2028 located below the third layer 2018 will not experience the same change in conductivity. In addition, the selected portion 2024 will not be ablated by the beam 2021.

Conductor areas or layers are non-ablated so that they can be used in touch-sensitive screens of electronic or other devices related to printed electronics or optoelectronics, which include low damage, low visibility processing or It is a device that requires accuracy. As used in this article, "ablation" and "non-ablation" have the meanings set out above.

In some cases, the conductive material layers include a plurality of silver nanowires arranged randomly. These layers of silver nanowires are typically fixed to a substrate in a polymer matrix (eg, an organic overcoat). A laser beam will pass a laser pulse to this layer and create a processed portion, wherein the conductivity of the material of the conductive layer will substantially change such that the processed portion is actually non-conductive. As used in this article, "conductivity" and "non-conductivity" have meanings commonly understood in the technology of printed electronics, touch sensor patterning, or optoelectronics, which will be presented in more detail below.

Laser pulses are directed to the complex in various patterns, so that special regions and electrical paths are formed on the substrate. By carefully selecting the characteristics of the laser pulse parameters (which include: pulse length, pulse energy density, pulse energy, light spot size, pulse repetition rate, and scanning speed), the substrate can be processed so that its electrical characteristics are preset And the substrate and the associated protective layer and conductor layer will not be substantially damaged or structurally changed (for example, ablative).

Exemplary laser pulse parameters suitable for non-ablative processing of a conductor layer include: a pulse length of about 50 ps, a pulse energy density of about 0.17 J / cm ² , a spot size of about 40 μm (l / e ² ), A scan rate of about 1 m / s, a pulse-to-pulse overlap of greater than 90%, a total pulse energy of about 12 μJ, and a pulse repetition rate of about 100 kHz, which uses optical radiation with a wavelength of 1064 nm (which has been found to be compatible with substrates and other materials The reaction proceeds to a lesser degree than light of shorter wavelengths). Various other parameters are equally suitable. For example, the pulse repetition rate can be increased to 1 MHz, 10 MHz, or greater than 10 MHz in order to increase the processing speed. The pulse length can be selected to be shorter or longer. The pulse energy density can be adjusted to ensure that the target is non-ablated. Possible pulse lengths include less than about 1 ps, 100 ps, 200 ps, 500 ps, 800 ps, or 1 ns. Other parameters can be changed and optimized in the same way. Laser parameters suitable for non-ablative laser processing are selected based in part on the relevant characteristics of the selected material to be processed. For example, changing the thickness of a substrate, a thin conductor layer, etc. can affect the possible distribution of laser pulse heat or cause other time-dependent effects that need to be mitigated.

Although the beam used for processing is usually focused on the structure; other beam geometric configurations and intensity distributions can also be used, including: unfocused beams; straight beams; square or rectangular beams; and spans One or more beams that have a uniform, substantially uniform, or preselected intensity profile across the transverse axis. In some cases, a complex is translated to help achieve geometric feature patterns on its surface. In some cases, one or more laser beams are irradiated onto a complex from the top or back side, so that the beam propagates through the substrate to the conductor layer, which is caused by the beam. Ablation or non-ablation of a conductor layer. In some cases, a laser pulse can cause a processed portion of a conductive layer to become non-conductive without changing the visible characteristics of the processed portion. Similarly, laser pulses treat a conductor boundary in an ablative or non-ablative manner. Laser ablation of a conductor boundary can be achieved by increasing the energy content of the laser beam incident on the target surface. For example, the laser pulse parameters can be adjusted by increasing the pulse length, pulse energy density, total pulse energy, using a shorter wavelength, or reducing the spot size. A suitable laser system usually includes a pulsed fiber laser, a pulsed fiber amplifier, and a diode-pumped solid-state laser.

IV. Patterning the Conductor Film with Variable Focus Plane Patterns to Control Feature Pattern Size

In some cases, laser scanning systems are used to process materials such as composite films used in electronic devices (for example, as touch screens in electronic devices). In one exemplary processing scenario, one or more conductive materials (for example, a layer of silver nanowires and A silver paste boundary) is deposited on a substrate, and a laser scanning system is used to process the conductive materials (for example, to reduce the conductivity of multiple parts of the conductive layer, or via The material is ablated to form various characteristic patterns). The present disclosure provides various advantages over the prior art touch screen manufacturing process, including screen printing technology and / or lithography technology. Specifically, the present disclosure allows a single laser scanning device to be used to process a touch screen subject and its IC channel.

The step for processing a composite film is configured to allow a plurality of touch-sensitive areas used in various display devices to be formed in the composite film. Other suitable applications for treated materials would typically include display devices, as well as LED phosphor enhancement, other commercial and consumer lighting applications, wearable electronics, and photovoltaic special batteries. However, composite films are particularly suitable for mobile consumer displays, where a thin, durable, and flexible form factor is highly desirable. When used as a display for a mobile consumer device, a flexible and / or transparent composite film (and therefore, each material layer making up the composite film is flexible and / or transparent) can be beneficial. However, depending on the intended use of the final product, a composite film that is at least partially or very opaque and / or at least partially or very rigid may also be beneficial. Regardless of the transparency and / or rigidity of the composite film, the systems, devices, and processes described herein can be used to process the composite film. Composite films are also referred to herein as composites.

The substrate used may be formed from a wide variety of materials. For example, the substrate can be made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) because of its low cost and many advantageous features including transparency, flexibility, elasticity, ease of manufacture, ... and so on. A non-exhaustive list of other possible substrate materials includes polyethylene naphthalate, polyurethane, various glasses, and various metals. The substrate will come in various thicknesses. For example, the substrate may have a thickness between about 10 μm and 1 mm, or a thickness between about 50 μm and 200 μm, or in one specific example, the thickness is about 130 μm.

In some cases, a flexible and transparent composite material includes a substrate (for example, PET) on which a silver nanowire layer (also known as SNW or AgNW) is deposited to a predetermined thickness or to a predetermined thickness. Given the conductivity, both can be achieved by increasing or decreasing the density of the silver nanowires during the production of the composite. The silver nanowire layer may have various thicknesses, for example, a thickness between about 1 nm and 100 nm, or a thickness between about 3 nm and 70 nm, or a thickness between about 30 nm and 50 nm. Silver nanowires are very suitable for flexible substrates because their material properties (e.g., conductivity and structural integrity) are under various types of bending loads (for example, fixed bending, cyclic deformation, or flexibility) Sex) are very consistent. In some cases, indium tin oxide (ITO) or other suitable materials can be used instead of silver nanowires.

An embodiment of a laser scanning system 100 shown in FIG. 10. The system 100 includes a laser source 102, and a laser beam 104 is illustrated by a pair of rays 106, 108 in the figure. The laser beam 104 propagates along an optical axis 124 indicated by a dotted line, and from the laser source 102 to a focus control lens 110 held by a housing 112. The lens 110 can be a single optical element, for example, a plano-concave mirror or a double-concave mirror; or, it can be a synthetic lens including two or more single lens elements. In most cases, the focus control lens 110 will generate a scattered beam; however, in some examples, the focus control lens 110 will cause the beam 104 to first converge to a focal point, and then diffuse when propagating away from the focal point. . When leaving the focus control lens 110, the beam 104 is guided to an objective lens assembly 116 along the optical axis 124. When the beam 104 leaves the objective lens assembly 116, the objective lens assembly 116 converges the beam 104. The aggregated beam is then directed to a first reflecting surface 118, which reflects the beam 104 to a second reflecting surface 120. The second reflecting surface 120 reflects the beam to a substrate 122. The beam 104 will Focused at a focal point 126 in the substrate 122. Generally, although the beam 104 is focused on a substrate At a specific portion; however, the beam focusing can also be in front of or behind the substrate 122 and inside the substrate 122.

As shown in FIG. 10, the reflective surfaces 118, 120 of the system 100 can be adjusted to manipulate the beam relative to the substrate 122. In one example, the surfaces 118, 120 can be reflective surfaces that are coupled to the first galvanometer 119 and the second galvanometer 121, respectively, and thus their orientation can be manipulated and controlled using a control system 140, which controls The system 140 provides scanning and focus control. The control system 140 is also coupled to one or more galvanometers or other focus adjustment mechanisms 114 that shift the focus control lens 110 along the axis 124. As shown in FIG. 10, the focus control lens 110 can be moved to various positions, for example, a position 115 shown in a dotted line. The focus control lens 110 provides an input beam to the objective lens assembly 116 by these movements, so that the beam is focused at an acceptable position to compensate for a non-flat focus plane or curvature and / or Non-planar substrate.

Although the focus control lens 110 can adjust the focus of the beam 104 on the substrate, it is generally impossible to perform a large beam shift along the axis 124. Instead, the housing 112 of the focus control lens 110 is fixed to a translation platform 130 to move the focus control lens 110 to various positions along the axis 124, for example, a position 117 shown in a dotted line. These relatively large movements of the housing 112 and the focus control lens 110 provide an extended range in which the beam 104 can be focused, and thus allow a corresponding variation in the beam spot size at a focused position. The substrate 122 is positioned in the axis 124 by a translation platform 131, so that beams of various light spot sizes can be focused on the substrate 122. For convenience of explanation, the adjustment of the focus control lens 110 by the translation platform 130 will be referred to as a beam diameter adjustment.

The system of Figure 10 allows maintenance even on curved or non-planar target surfaces Focus. The system shown in FIG. 11 uses a system such as the system 100 to focus an optical beam. An objective lens 200 is placed to focus the optical beam in an axis 208. For a fixed lens position and beam focusing in the axis 208, the beam usually cannot be focused in a plane 204 during scanning. Instead, the scanned beam focus defines a curved surface 206. To focus on a flat substrate (or other shaped substrate), a focus control lens is adjusted to establish beam focus on the plane 204 (or other surface). As shown in FIG. 11, in general, the larger the angle between the direction of the ray and the axis 208 (that is, the larger the angle α2), the greater the displacement of the actual focus from the plane 204. To change the beam spot size, for example, a focus control lens may be translated using a translation platform 130 as shown in FIG. 10. With this adjustment, a beam can be focused at an alternate focusing plane 214 with a different beam diameter using a focus adjustment lens to correct the curved field focusing surface 216. In this way, beam focusing is mainly done with a relatively small (and usually faster) focus adjustment, while beam spot size is mainly adjusted with a relatively large (and usually slower) beam spot size To adjust.

In some systems, servo motors or other motion control devices (or piezoelectric devices, galvanometers, translation platforms, etc.) are placed to move a focus control lens to correct field curvature and maintain The beam at a substrate is focused. Additional servo motors (or piezoelectric devices, galvanometers, translation stages, etc.) will be placed to move the focus control lens to further adjust the focus position of the beam in the optical axis, usually used To adjust the beam diameter.

Referring generally to FIG. 12, there is shown a cross-sectional view of three laser beams 302, 303, 304 (typically pulsed) directed to a complex 300 and focused at different complex feature patterns. The beams have selected laser pulse parameters. As shown, the composite 300 includes: a substrate 306 having a lower portion 305 and a peripheral lip 307; a peripheral guide A body boundary 308; and a conductive material layer 310 that is disposed on a top surface of the substrate 306. In some examples, the substrate 306 has a constant or fixed thickness, or may have a varying thickness, depending on the intended application of the composite. In some examples, the surrounding conductor boundary 308 includes a conductive silver paste.

In some embodiments, the complex 300 is processed as a capacitive touch screen in an electronic device. In these embodiments, the composite 300 is transparent, so that it can be stacked on the display of an electronic device to provide a touch screen function without hindering the user from viewing the display. The thin layer 310 will include the body that touches the screen (that is, it will be overlaid on the display), and the boundary 308 will include one or more integrated circuit (IC) channels for These ICs are coupled to the body of the touch screen. For example, the ICs can be used to determine the position of a touch event on the touch screen based on a change in capacitance at various positions on the touch screen. The channels couple the IC to the touch screen itself to enable such decisions.

In various electronic devices, it may be desirable to stack the thin layer 310 over the entire display of the device in order to allow users to interact with the full range of the display. Therefore, they will have to fit the IC channels into the chassis of the electronic device. When the chassis of the electronic device is small, it is advantageous to reduce the size of the IC channels in a similar way (so that they can fit in the chassis) and to control their characteristics more finely (for example, they Conductivity and dimensions).

Because the boundary 308 and the thin layer 310 have different uses, they can be processed in different ways to achieve different results. For example, it is advantageous to treat the thin layer 310 non-ablatively so that it maintains a uniform thickness and appearance that is presented to the user. However, there is A favorable method is to ablate the boundary 308 to form the IC channels from the continuous boundary 308. Further, planes z1, z2, and z3 (pulse laser beams 302, 304, and 303 are focused thereon, respectively, for processing layer 310 and boundary 308) along the pulse laser beams The optical axes of 302, 303, 304 are separated from each other. As such, the techniques described herein provide various advantages in processing layers 310 and boundaries 308 in a single system.

As explained above, the components of the complex shown in FIG. 12 are processed by a laser patterning system such as the system 100. According to the foregoing description, the system 100 can be used to process the thin layer 310 and the boundary 308 in a variety of different ways. For example, the system 100 can be used to non-ablatively process the thin layer 310, as explained in more detail below. The system 100 can also be used to ablate process boundaries 308, as also described in further detail below. During these processing steps, the focus control lens 110 is automatically moved to correct the curvature of the field. The movement of the housing 112 can be controlled manually or through a computer-controlled servo module, so as to control the focal position of a laser beam in the optical axis direction of the laser beam.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 12, a pulsed laser beam 302 is controlled to focus on the exposed surface of the thin layer 310 at the focus plane z1 in order to process the layer 310 non-ablatively. Similarly, a pulsed laser beam 304 is controlled to focus on the exposed surface of the boundary 308 at the focus plane z2 in order to ablate the layer 308. Furthermore, if a laser beam is used to ablate the composite 300, the laser beam is continuously controlled, so that it focuses on the material (it can move when it is ablated) On the surface. In some cases it may be desirable to minimize the spot size of the laser beam on the surface being processed by the laser beam. In these cases, the focusing plane of the laser beam will be consistent with the exposed surface of the material being processed, as shown for the laser beams 302 and 304. However, larger features may be used in other situations. Pattern size, and therefore may use a larger spot size. In these cases, the focus plane of the laser beam will deviate from the exposed surface of the material being processed along the optical axis of the laser beam, as shown for laser beam 303. Therefore, the scanning laser system described in this article can provide adjustment of the feature pattern size.

In some cases, the distance between a laser scanning system and the surface of the material to be processed can be adjusted, for example, increasing the distance to provide a larger field size and shortening the distance to improve accuracy , Or change the size of the focused spot. Therefore, in some cases, the material to be processed by a laser scanning system is placed on an adjustable surface that can be moved to adjust the distance between the scanning system and the surface to be processed . For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the composite 300 is placed on a work table 312, which can be adjusted along an axis ZF. In one example, the table is coupled to one or more threaded rods 314 that are screwed into individual hollow tube bodies 316 with corresponding threads on the inner surface. Therefore, rotating the tubes 316 will cause the table 312 to move along the axis ZF and thus cause the composite 300 to move along the axis ZF. The pipe body 316 is supported on a base unit 318. Of course, any other translation mechanism can be used.

FIG. 13 shows laser beams 406, 408, 410. Each laser beam propagates along a different axis when guided by a laser scanning system 412 (which may have the same configuration as the system 100). Each of the laser beams 406, 408, 410 shown in the figure has three different configurations (beams 406A, 406B, 406C, or 408A, 408B, 408C, or 410A, 410B, 410C): Focused on a first focusing plane 400A or 400B in the first configuration (ie, as shown at 406A, 408A, and 410A), and focused on a second in the second configuration Focus plane 402A or 402B (ie, as in 406B, 408B, and 410B) Shown), and in a third configuration is focused on a third focus plane 404A or 404B (ie, as shown at 406C, 408C, and 410C). The focus plane 400A is further from the system 412 by a distance x2 than the focus plane 402A, and the focus plane 402A is further from the system 412 by a distance x3 than the focus plane 404A. The distances x4, x5, x6 usually correspond to different focal positions, which correspond to the curvature of the field in the objective lens. Therefore, an objective lens can form a beam focus at a plane 400A for a target portion of a substrate placed on the axis of the objective lens; without focus adjustment, a beam incident on an off-axis target portion will be focused On plane 400B. As mentioned above, a focus control lens is provided to adjust the focus position for compensation.

The displacements x2 and x3 are usually provided to correspond to a large translation of a focus control lens in order to generate a change in the beam spot size. The displacements x2 and x3 are usually not equal, and the size of the beam spot focused at plane 400A is usually larger than the beam spot size at plane 402A, while the beam spot size at plane 402A is greater than The spot size of the focused beam at plane 404A. As shown in FIG. 12, a processing system is configured to provide focus adjustments (x4, x5, x6) at locations associated with different beam spot sizes (ie, at displacements x2, x3).

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary method 500 for processing a complex (eg, a complex to be processed as a touch screen in an electronic device). A composite body is selected at 502. The composite body includes a substrate on which a conductor layer and a conductor boundary are formed. A pattern or process description will be obtained at 504 to indicate how the various parts of the complex are to be processed, and may include pattern layout, dwell time, feature pattern size, type of processing (for example, ablation or Other processes). The processing beam parameters (eg, power, wavelength, pulse repetition rate, pulse energy, and beam spot size) are associated with the pattern description at 506. A focus plane (or working distance) is selected at 508 to generate the selected beam spot sizes. At 510 A focus control assembly will be positioned so that the beam from the focus control assembly will be focused at the selected focus plane to a suitable beam spot size. As shown in FIG. 14, the focusing plane is selected for processing the conductor layer. At 512, the conductor layer (or other substrate area) is processed with the selected spot size / working distance in cooperation with the focus control provided by a focus control lens. A focus control assembly will be positioned at 514 such that the beam from the focus control assembly will be focused at another selected focus plane to another suitable beam spot size. As shown in Figure 14, this focus plane is selected to process the conductor boundary. At 516, the conductor boundary (or other substrate area) is processed with the selected spot size / working distance in conjunction with the focus control provided by a focus control lens. Processing of this exemplary method ends at 520. A plurality of different working distances and beam spot sizes can be used based on the pattern description. Although a beam spot size range can be used, for example, a beam between 2 μm and 10 mm, between 4 μm and 1 mm, between 5 μm and 0.5 mm, or between 8 μm and 0.2 mm. Beam diameter; however, typical beam spot sizes are between 10 μm and 100 μm. Such beams are generally capable of processing complexes containing conductive silver paste or silver nanowires to provide correspondingly sized feature patterns.

Ablation and non-ablation treatment of conductor layers and boundaries

In some cases, the conductor layer is non-ablated to enable it to function as a touch-sensitive screen in an electronic device, and the conductor boundary is subjected to ablation to form a path from the touch-sensitive screen to IC channel of an integrated circuit. However, in alternative embodiments, the conductor layer or the conductor boundary can be treated with ablation or non-ablation, as long as it is suitable for this particular embodiment. As used in this article, the terms "ablative" and "non-ablative" have the meanings mentioned above.

In some cases, the conductive material layers include randomly arranged silver nanometers line. These layers of silver nanowires are fixed to a substrate in a polymer matrix (eg, an organic overcoat). A laser beam will pass a laser pulse to this layer and create a processed portion, wherein the conductivity of the material of the conductive layer will substantially change such that the processed portion is actually non-conductive. As used herein, "conductivity" and "non-conductivity" have meanings commonly understood in the technology of printed electronics, touch sensor patterning, or optoelectronics. For example, a suitable sheet resistance that can be considered as a conductive material contains 30 to 250 Ω / sq, while a suitable sheet resistance or electrical isolation measurement that can be considered as a non-conductive or electrically isolated material contains greater than or equal to About 20MΩ / sq. However, these chip resistors are only examples, and other conductive ranges and non-conductive ranges can be applied depending on the requirements of a particular application. Some processed substrates can be considered to be sufficiently conductive at a sheet resistance of less than 500Ω / sq, 1kΩ / sq, 5kΩ / sq, or 10kΩ / sq, and can be greater than or equal to about 100kΩ / sq , 1MΩ / sq, or 100MΩ / sq is considered non-conductive.

Laser pulses are directed to the complex in various patterns, so that special regions and electrical paths are formed on the substrate. By carefully selecting the characteristics of the laser pulse parameters (which include: pulse length, pulse energy density, pulse energy, light spot size, pulse repetition rate, and scanning speed), the substrate can be processed so that its electrical characteristics are preset And the substrate and the associated protective layer and conductor layer will not be substantially damaged or structurally changed (for example, ablative).

Exemplary laser pulse parameters suitable for non-ablative processing of a conductor layer include: a pulse length of about 50 ps, a pulse energy density of about 0.17 J / cm ² , a spot size of about 40 μm (l / e ² ), A scan rate of about 1 m / s, a pulse-to-pulse overlap of greater than 90%, a total pulse energy of about 12 μJ, and a pulse repetition rate of about 100 kHz, which uses optical radiation with a wavelength of 1064 nm (which has been found to be compatible with substrates and other materials The reaction proceeds to a lesser degree than light of shorter wavelengths). Various other parameters are equally suitable. For example, the pulse repetition rate can be increased to 1 MHz, 10 MHz, or greater than 10 MHz in order to increase the processing speed. The pulse length can be selected to be shorter or longer. The pulse energy density can be adjusted to ensure that the target is non-ablated. Possible pulse lengths include less than about 1 ps, 100 ps, 200 ps, 500 ps, 800 ps, or 1 ns. Other parameters can be changed and optimized in the same way. Laser parameters suitable for non-ablative laser processing are selected based in part on the relevant characteristics of the selected material to be processed. For example, changing the thickness of a substrate, a thin conductor layer, etc. can affect the possible distribution of laser pulse heat or cause other time-dependent effects that need to be mitigated.

Although these beams are often described as being sent to a focal point; other beam geometric configurations and intensity distributions can also be used, including: unfocused beams; straight beams; square or rectangular beams; and A beam having a uniform, substantially uniform, or preselected intensity profile across one or more transverse axes. In some cases, a complex is translated to help achieve geometric feature patterns on its surface. In some cases, one or more laser beams are irradiated onto a complex from the top or back side, so that the beam propagates through the substrate to the conductor layer, which is caused by the beam. Ablation or non-ablation of a conductor layer. In some cases, a laser pulse can cause a processed portion of a conductive layer to become non-conductive without changing the visible characteristics of the processed portion. Similarly, laser pulses treat a conductor boundary in an ablative or non-ablative manner. Laser ablation of a conductor boundary can be achieved by increasing the energy content of the laser beam incident on the target surface. For example, the laser pulse parameters can be adjusted by increasing the pulse length, pulse energy density, total pulse energy, using a shorter wavelength, or reducing the spot size. A suitable laser system usually includes a pulsed fiber laser, pulsed light Fiber amplifiers, and diode-based solid-state lasers.

Demonstration control system and computing environment

An exemplary laser processing system shown in FIG. 15 includes a control system 600 that controls a laser beam delivery system 603. As shown, the control system 600 will include: a laser beam parameter control interface 602; a platform control interface 604; two galvanometer control interfaces 606 and 608 for controlling the scanning of a laser beam; and a first The platform control interface 610 and the second platform control interface 612. The laser beam parameter control interface 602 is coupled to a laser beam source, such as the laser source 605, and can control the parameters of the laser beam generated thereby, such as pulse length, pulse energy density, pulse Energy, pulsed light wavelength, ... Generally, the control system 600 includes one or more processors 607 and a memory 609. The memory retains pattern data and instructions for processing the pattern data in order to determine laser scanning parameters. The control interfaces are typically implemented on the basis of computer-executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (for example, a magnetic disk or a memory such as a random access memory).

The platform control interface 604 is coupled to a substrate platform 618, which can control the position of the complex to be processed. The substrate platform 618 may include any of various motion control devices, such as a piezoelectric or motor type scanning device. The galvanometer control interfaces 606 and 608 are coupled to galvanometers 616 and 614, respectively. The galvanometers 616 and 614 can control the reflective surfaces 617 and 615, respectively. The first platform control interface 610 and the second platform control interface 612 are respectively coupled to the motion control devices 629 and 630 and can control the linear motion of the platforms along an optical axis. The motion control device 629 is coupled to a focus adjustment assembly 628, and the The beam is kept in focus during the beam scan. The focus adjustment assembly 628 is fixed to the motion control device 630 to select a suitable beam diameter for substrate processing. The figure shows one of the additional positions of the focus adjustment assembly 628 at 628A. The use of the motion control device 630 to adjust the focus adjustment assembly 628 usually accompanies the corresponding movement of the substrate 618, so beam focusing with different beam diameters can be achieved, and the motion control device 629 can be used to maintain focus over a scanning field.

The system shown in FIG. 16 is a general example of a suitable computing environment 700 that can implement the innovations described herein. The computing environment 700 is not intended to suggest any limitation in terms of use or functionality, as these innovations can be implemented with a wide variety of general-purpose or special-purpose computing systems. For example, the computing environment 700 can be any variety of computing devices, such as desktop computers, laptops, server computers, tablets, media players, gaming systems, mobile devices, ... Wait.

Referring to FIG. 16, the computing environment 700 includes a basic configuration 730 that includes one or more processing units 710 and 715 and memories 720 and 725. The processing units 710 and 715 execute instructions executable by the computer. A processing unit can be a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a processor of an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or any other type of processor. In a multiple processing system, multiple processing units execute computer-readable instructions to increase processing power. For example, FIG. 16 shows a central processing unit 710 and a graphics processing unit or cooperative processing unit 715. Tangible memory 720, 725 can be volatile memory (for example, register, cache, RAM), non-volatile memory (for example, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, etc.) Or a specific combination of the two mentioned above that is accessible by the processing unit (s). Memory 720, 725 to fit The processing unit (s) are stored in the form of computer-executable instructions that execute one or more of the innovative software 780 described herein.

A computing system can also have additional features. For example, the computing environment 700 includes a storage body 740, one or more input devices 750, one or more output devices 760, and one or more communication connections 770. An interconnection mechanism (not shown) (for example, a bus, a controller, or a network) interconnects the devices of the computing environment 700. Generally, operating system software (not shown) provides an operating environment for other software executing in the computing environment 700, and coordinates the activities of the devices of the computing environment 700.

The tangible storage body 740 may be removable or non-removable, and contains a magnetic disk, tape or cassette, CD-ROM, DVD, or it can be used to store information in a non-transitory manner and can be stored in the computing environment 700. Any other media accessed. The storage 740 stores instructions to execute one or more of the innovative software 780 described herein.

The input device (s) 750 may be a touch input device (eg, a keyboard, mouse, pen, or trackball), a voice input device, a scanning device, or other device that provides input to the computing environment 700. For video coding, the input device (s) 750 may be a camera, video card, TV tuner or similar device that accepts video input in analog or digital form, or read video samples into the computing environment 700. CD-ROM or CD-RW. The output device (s) 760 may be a display, a printer, a speaker, a CD overwriter, or other device that provides output from the computing environment 700.

The communication connection (s) 770 will enable communication with another computing entity over a communication medium. The communication medium conveys information such as computer-executable instructions, audio or video input or output, or other information in a modulated data signal. Modulated data signal A signal for which one or more of its feature sets encode information in the signal or one or more of its feature sets have changed in a manner used to encode information in the signal. For example, and without limitation, the communication medium can use an electric carrier, an optical carrier, an RF carrier, or other carriers.

The software 780 may include one or more software modules. For example, the software 780 can include: a laser beam software module 782 for setting laser beam parameters and / or controlling a laser beam source; a substrate platform movement module 784 for setting the A substrate position along an axis and controls a substrate platform; and a beam scanning module 786 for determining parameters of a beam scanning system and / or controlling the beam scanning system. One exemplary beam scanning system would include a pair of galvanometers. A focus control module 780 also includes a focus correction module 788 for determining the action to be taken to correct the curvature of the field, for example, moving a focus adjustment lens. A beam diameter module 790 controls the movement so as to focus a beam at a special distance to obtain a selected beam diameter.

For ease of presentation, some of the operations in the disclosed method are described in a special sequential order; however, it should be understood that unless the specific language proposed in this article requires a special ordering method, this description method covers re- arrangement. For example, the operations described sequentially in this article may be rearranged or performed concurrently in some cases. In addition, for the sake of simplicity, the accompanying drawings do not show various ways in which the disclosed method can be used in conjunction with other methods.

Any of the methods disclosed can be stored on one or more computer-readable storage media (for example, one or more optical media discs, volatile memory devices (e.g., DRAM or SRAM), Or a non-volatile memory device (for example, a flash memory or a hard drive) and a computer (for example, any commercially available computer that includes a smartphone or Contains computer-executable instructions executed on other mobile devices including computing hardware. The term computer-readable storage media does not include communication connections, such as signals and carrier waves. Any computer-executable instructions used to implement the disclosed technology and any data created and used during the implementation of the disclosed embodiments are stored in one or more computer-readable storage media. For example, the computer-executable instructions may be a proprietary software application or part of a software application that is accessed or downloaded through a web browser or other software application (e.g., a remote computing application). . For example, this software can be run on a single local computer (for example, any suitable commercially available computer) or in a network environment using one or more network computers (through the Internet, WAN , Local area network, client-server network (e.g., cloud computing network), or other such network).

Furthermore, any such software-based embodiment (for example, including computer-executable instructions for a computer to implement any of the disclosed methods) can be uploaded, downloaded, or Is remote access. For example, this suitable means of communication includes the Internet, the World Wide Web, corporate intranets, software applications, cables (which include fiber optic cables), magnetic communications, and electromagnetic communications (which includes RF, microwave, and infrared communications), electronic communications, or other such means of communication.

FIG. 17 shows a focusing assembly 808 that can be translated to a plurality of fixed positions (eg, 808A) based on the assembly stops 810A to 810C. The platform 802 translates the focusing assembly 808 along the axis 812 of an objective lens 814. The focusing assembly 808 includes a lens 806 which can be translated in the focusing assembly 808 to adjust the beam focusing position established by the objective lens 814 so as to compensate the field curvature or the non-planar substrate. One of the lenses 806 is representatively displayed at 806A.

V. Optimization of high-resolution digitally encoded laser scanners for fine feature pattern marking

An important feature of laser scanning systems is the resolution they can achieve (used in this paper to represent the minimum distance between two distinguishable points). Conventional laser scanning systems have attempted to improve resolution by reducing the working distance between the laser scanner and the surface being scanned, resulting in scanning with a smaller resolution over a smaller scanning field. To maintain large-field scanning capabilities, these conventional systems have used expensive translatable platforms to translate the surface being scanned, thereby enabling multiple small fields to be scanned adjacent to each other on a surface to form a large field. area. These known systems have several disadvantages.

Previous laser scanning systems typically used 16-bit laser scanners, reducing the working distance until the desired resolution was reached, and then scanning a number of small fields, which relied on a translatable platform to scan the scanner Move the surface being scanned as a reference. It was found that by using a 20-bit scanner, the same technology can be used to achieve improved resolution (for example, a 6-fold improvement). Alternatively, it was found that by using a 20-bit scanner, the same resolution can be achieved at a large working distance, thereby reducing or eliminating the need to scan multiple fields and thus reducing or eliminating the scanner. The need to translate the surface being scanned for the datum. This provides several different advantages that are significantly better than conventional systems. For example, it is able to achieve scans with significantly smaller resolutions. Furthermore, by reducing or eliminating the need to stitch many small scanning fields together, it will reduce or eliminate errors generated during the stitching process.

The system shown in FIG. 18 is a digital laser scanning system 3000 (for example, a 20-bit laser scanning system) and laser beams 3008, 3010, and 3012, each of which follows the system The different axes indicated by the system 3000 propagate. Each of the laser beams 3008, 3010, and 3012 shown in the figure has three different configurations (beams 3008A, 3008B, 3008C, or 3010A, 3010B, 3010C, or 3012A, 3012B, respectively). 3012C): Focused on a first focusing plane 3002 in the first configuration (ie, as shown at 3008A, 3010A, and 3012A), and focused in a second configuration Plane 3004 (ie, as shown at 3008B, 3010B, and 3012B), and in a third configuration, focused on a third focus plane 3006 (ie, as at 3008C, 3010C, and 3012C) As shown). The focus plane 3002 is farther from the system 3000 than the focus plane 3004, and the focus plane 3004 is farther from the system 3000 than the focus plane 3006.

The digital laser scanning system 3000 usually generates a deflection angle α specified digitally by a predetermined number of bits. For example, the digital laser scanning system 3000 can specify a skew angle in n bits, where n is an integer such as 8, 16, 18, 20, or more bits. An n-bit digital laser scanning system can identify 2 ⁿ different deflection angles. The lateral displacement in a selected focus plane is usually proportional to the product of the skew angle α and the distance of the focus plane in the axis 3050. The lateral displacement resolution (for a fixed deflection angle difference) is defined as the associated lateral displacement difference.

As shown in FIG. 18, the lateral displacement resolution at the focus plane 3006 is smaller than the lateral displacement resolution at the focus plane 3004, and the lateral displacement resolution at the focus plane 3004 is smaller than the lateral displacement resolution at the focus plane 3002. . That is, as the working distance from the system 3000 increases, the lateral displacement resolution increases. Because the focus plane 3002 is farther from the system 3000 than the focus plane 3004, and the focus plane 3004 is farther from the system 3000 than the focus plane 3006, the lateral displacement resolution is x10> x11> x12. Utilize 20-bit scanning system instead of 16 The bit scanning system can achieve the desired resolution at a sufficiently large working distance, allowing scanning of a scanning area of one square meter, without the need to use the scanning system as a reference to translate the scanned surface and There is no need to stitch multiple smaller scanning fields together to form a larger scanning field. More specifically, a 20-bit scanning system can scan a square meter scanning field with a resolution of less than one micron.

System 3000 will include: a laser configured to generate a processing beam; an optical system; and a scanning controller configured to receive a scanning pattern and couple a scanning control signal to the optical system. In some cases, the scan pattern is defined as a plurality of scan vectors. In some cases, the scanning control signals control the optical system to direct the processing beam to a scanning area with a preset beam diameter. In some cases, the scanning controller is configured to couple a scanning control signal to the optical system so as to control the optical system to cross the scanning area or scan the processing beam relative to the scanning area, thereby Generate at least one exposure scan vector. In some cases, the lateral offset between the exposure scan vector and an expected scan vector is less than 1/10 of the preset beam diameter, or less than 1/20 of the preset beam diameter. In some cases, the plurality of scan control signal corresponding to the accuracy of the plurality of scanning vector ¹⁶ falls at least ½ (0.0015%) which, for example, from about ¹⁷ 1/2 (0.00076%), or from about 1 / 2 ¹⁸ (0.00038%), or about 1/2 ¹⁹ (0.00019%), or about 1/2 ²⁰ (0.000095%).

Table 1 shows more clearly the resolution that can be achieved with various scanning systems for several field sizes, in μm / bit. Specifically, Table 1 shows the specific advantages of a 20-bit scanning system over a 16-bit scanning system for square fields with different length sides.

19A and 19B respectively show the resolutions that can be achieved by using a 16-bit scanning system and using a 20-bit scanning system. The left images of FIGS. 19A and 19B show an input pattern composed of multiple concentric circles, and the maximum circle diameter is 1 mm. The right images of FIGS. 19A and 19B show patterns actually scanned by the 16-bit scanning system and the 20-bit scanning system in response to an input pattern composed of a plurality of concentric circles, respectively. These patterns are scanned on photosensitive paper using the same optical system, laser, and scanner (which operates in 16-bit mode and 20-bit mode). Based on the field sizes used in these examples, the lateral displacement resolution of the 16-bit scanning system is 9.2 μm and the lateral displacement resolution of the 20-bit scanning system is 0.6 μm. The results of these experiments clearly show the improved scanning resolution of the 20-bit scanning system. With higher lateral displacement resolution, the shape can be transferred to the substrate more accurately.

Therefore, a 20-bit scanning system can provide a smaller laser scribe line with a scanning pitch smaller than the known scanning system (the minimum achievable center-to-center distance between feature patterns used herein), And can reduce the quantization error associated with the beam displacement caused by the single bit accuracy limitation. Specifically, to scan a 20 μm scribe line with a 40 μm pitch over a 0.5 mx 0.5 m field, the 16-bit scanning system provides only 5 to 6 bit positions (between 7.6 μm / bit) between the scribe lines. Place). By reducing the scribe width to 10 μm and the pitch to 20 μm, a 16-bit system can provide only 2 to 3 bits between the scribes, resulting in significant beam shift quantization and related errors (for example, The intervals between feature patterns are relatively inconsistent). Conversely, to scan a 10 μm scribe line with a 20 μm pitch over a 0.5 mx 0.5 m field, a 20-bit scanning system will provide 41 and 42 bit positions between the scribe lines. 20A and 20B show the results of this improvement. FIG. 20A shows several straight lines scanned by a 16-bit scanning system at a pitch of 100 μm, and FIG. 20B shows the same input pattern scanned by a 20-bit scanning system. The improvement in interval consistency can be seen visually.

The present invention is further tested to evaluate the improvement provided by the 20-bit scan. FIG. 21 shows the input patterns scanned by the 16-bit scanning system and the 20-bit scanning system. The numbers shown in FIG. 21 represent the spacing of the associated patterns in nm. The distance between the scanned feature patterns is measured at a high magnification, and the results of each of these patterns are shown in Table 2 (the straight or corner edges have a given interval).

Table 2 presents the measured values of the distances of the scanned feature patterns for six different patterns that are patterned by both 16-bit scanning and 20-bit scanning. It includes the maximum interval, the minimum interval, the minimum interval, and the maximum interval. , Mean interval, and standard deviation of the interval. The interval of the corner feature patterns is measured in a diagonal line between the corner edges, and therefore, the nominal distance of the feature patterns having a pitch of 50 μm is 70.7 μm and the nominal distance of the feature patterns having a pitch of 100 μm is 141.4. μm. As shown in Table 2, the performance of 20-bit scanning is consistent and significantly better than 16-bit scanning. Specifically, all standard deviations of 20-bit measurements fall within twice the single-bit resolution limit.

The system shown in FIG. 22 is an exemplary method 2200 by which materials can be processed. At 2202, material to be processed by a laser scanning system is received. At 2204, a description of the pattern to be scanned onto the material is received. At 2206, the material is processed using the laser scanning system according to the pattern description, and the laser scanning system is operated to have a 20-bit angular resolution. At 2208, processing ends. In some cases, the method is used to process a scanning field of at least one square meter with a single laser scanner without the need to translate the material using the scanning device as a reference.

Another exemplary method may include receiving a pattern description to define one or more pattern features, which are associated with individual scan vectors. The method may further include selecting a laser beam diameter and guiding a laser beam having the selected beam diameter or other preset beam diameter over a scanning area of a substrate based on the pattern description. In some cases, the laser beam is guided over the scanning area with a lateral displacement resolution less than 1/10 of the beam diameter. In some cases, the laser beam will be smaller than 1/20 of the beam diameter The lateral displacement resolution is guided above the scanning area. The scanning area can be square, rectangular, circular, or can have any other suitable shape.

Another exemplary method would include selecting a laser beam diameter (for example, between about 10 μm and 100 μm); and placing a substrate in a scan at a desired working distance from a laser beam source On a plane, the chirp is such that the laser beam has a selected diameter at the scanning plane. In some cases, the scanning plane is associated with the selected laser beam diameter. For example, the working distance is determined based on the selected diameter. The method may further include exposing the substrate to the laser beam by scanning the laser beam across or relative to the substrate. In some cases, the laser beam will correspond to less than 1/10 of the selected laser beam diameter, or less than 1/20 of the selected laser beam diameter, or less than the selected laser beam diameter. An angular scan increment of 1/100 of the laser beam diameter or less than 1/1000 of the selected laser beam diameter is scanned.

A 20-bit scanning system will improve the resolution to such an extent that the scanning system is no longer a limiting factor in achieving resolution. For example, the equipment used to modify the scanning system may not be able to be corrected to fall within the resolution achievable by the scanning system. In another example, thermal and / or vibration effects and beam steering and / or material limitations may cause errors greater than the resolution that can be achieved with the scanning system. A 20-bit (or other) laser scanning system uses multi-point extrapolation and equalization to place a beam across a scanning field to achieve further improvements over 16-bit encoding. Any suitable wavelength or range of optical radiation (eg, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, or other wavelengths) can be used. In some embodiments, a laser scanning system is used to scan a two-dimensional surface, so that the resolution of the scan pattern in the first axis is the same as the resolution of the scan pattern in the second axis. In an alternative embodiment, a laser sweep The tracing system is used to scan a two-dimensional surface, so that the resolution of the scan pattern in the first axis is greater than the resolution of the scan pattern in the second axis.

The systems and methods described herein provide a number of advantages. For example, the systems and methods described herein can achieve a more accurate laser patterning of a material. The systems and methods described herein can allow laser patterning of a substantially larger scanning field with a resolution that is less than or better than previous systems and methods. Specifically, the systems and methods described herein allow laser scanning of a scanning field greater than 1 square meter with a resolution of less than 1 μm without the need to translate the material and stitching multiple scanning fields To form a larger composite scanning field. This will reduce or eliminate errors caused by the translatable platform and the stitching process. This also reduces the time required to scan large fields, which reduces overall production time, and eliminates the need for expensive translatable platforms, which reduces overall production costs.

In some embodiments, multiple 20-bit laser scanners can be used in an array to simultaneously scan a surface to achieve a larger scanning field and / or smaller resolution than a single 20-bit scanner the goal of. This technique can further reduce the necessary processing time by processing multiple regions in parallel instead of sequential processing (which requires extra time for translation). In some embodiments, one or more 20-bit laser scanning systems can be used to scan multiple portions of a surface of a material, and the material is then scanned by the one or more scanning systems as The fiducials are translated (for example, one or more translatable platforms) so that the scanning systems are able to scan different parts of the surface of the material. This technique can also be used to achieve larger scanning fields and / or smaller resolutions.

In embodiments where multiple 20-bit scanning systems are used to scan multiple scanning fields on a surface, and a 20-bit scanning system combined with a translatable platform is used to scan a table In the embodiment of multiple scanning fields, the multiple scanning fields are spliced together to form a larger composite scanning field. For example, if multiple 20-bit scanning systems are used, each of these scanning systems will be equipped with a vision system, and the surface will be equipped with several placed in the field of view of the vision system. Fiducial mark. The vision system uses the fiducial marks to identify areas in the surfaces to which the scanning systems are assigned to scan and, if necessary, align the scans of different scanning systems. In another example, if a 20-bit scanning system combined with a translation platform is used to scan multiple scanning fields, the vision system will use the fiducial marks to identify the multiple scanning fields. Each field is used to align and arrange the multiple scanning fields to form a larger composite scanning field. Because a 20-bit scanning system provides significantly improved resolution, multiple fields can be aligned ("stitched" together) with greater accuracy.

In some cases, a computer system is provided with computer-executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, which performs optimization or alignment of a scan pattern scanned by a laser scanning system A computer-executable method of ordering multiple vectors. These methods and systems can reduce the time required to scan a surface and thus reduce the total processing time. As the number of vectors in a scan pattern increases, the optimization algorithms used by these methods provide greater efficiency. Therefore, these methods have been found to be particularly valuable for large scan fields, because larger scan fields usually contain a larger number of vectors to be drawn.

As mentioned above, a 20-bit scanning system is used to process materials that are to be used as capacitive touch screens in electronic devices such as cellular phones or tablets. In these embodiments, a large scanning field is used to make multiple touch screens from a common substrate during a single scanning operation. A large scanning field can also be used to make a large touch screen.

VI. Conclusion

Looking at the many possible embodiments that can apply the principles of the present disclosure, it should be clear that the embodiments illustrated by the present invention are only preferred embodiments and should not be considered as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. The invention claims all embodiments that fall within the scope and spirit of the scope of the accompanying patent application.

1010‧‧‧ Pulsed Laser Beam

1012 ‧ ‧ goals

1014‧‧‧Transparent substrate

1016‧‧‧ protective layer

1018‧‧‧Conductor material layer

1020‧‧‧After processing part

Claims (20)

A method for laser patterning includes: receiving a pattern description stored in at least one computer-readable storage medium, the pattern description including a definition of at least one feature pattern associated with a scan vector, the The scanning vector is associated with a laser beam deflection angle; and a laser beam is guided over a scanning area of a fixed substrate based on the pattern description, wherein the laser beam is less than a laser beam A lateral displacement resolution of 1/20 of the beam diameter is guided above the scanning area, so that a pattern portion corresponding to the at least one characteristic pattern is generated on the scanning area of the fixed substrate by the laser beam. The method according to item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein the area of the fixed scanning area is at least one square meter. The method according to item 2 of the patent application scope, wherein the lateral displacement resolution is less than 1 μm. The method according to item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein the fixed scanning area is a square or a circle. The method according to item 4 of the patent application scope, wherein at least one of laser beam power, pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, and laser beam diameter is selected to process the fixed substrate. The method according to item 1 of the patent application range, wherein the lateral displacement resolution is less than 0.5 μm. The method according to item 6 of the patent application scope, wherein the scanning area is square and the area is at least one square meter. The method according to item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein guiding the laser beam includes guiding the laser beam using multi-point extrapolation and equalization. A method for laser patterning, comprising: selecting a laser beam diameter; fixing a substrate so that it is scanned at a scanning plane associated with the selected laser beam diameter; by A laser beam having a selected diameter of the laser beam is scanned relative to the fixed substrate and the fixed substrate is exposed to the laser beam, wherein the laser beam is at the The scan plane is scanned at an angular scan increment corresponding to less than 1/10 of the laser beam diameter. The method according to item 9 of the patent application scope, wherein the laser beam is scanned at the scanning plane at an angular scan increment corresponding to less than 1/100 of the laser beam diameter. The method according to item 9 of the scope of patent application, wherein the laser beam is scanned at the scanning plane at an angular scan increment corresponding to less than 1/1000 of the laser beam diameter. The method according to item 9 of the patent application scope, wherein the selected laser beam diameter is between 10 μm and 100 μm. The method according to item 9 of the patent application scope, wherein scanning the laser beam with respect to the fixed substrate includes scanning the laser beam over a fixed scanning area of the fixed substrate, wherein the fixed The scanning area is at least one square meter. An apparatus for laser patterning, comprising: a laser configured to generate a processing beam; an optical system; and A scanning controller configured to receive a scanning pattern, the scanning pattern is defined as a plurality of scanning vectors and is configured to control the optical system to use a preset beam diameter to process the processing beam Guided to a scanning area of a fixed substrate; wherein the scanning controller is configured to control the optical system to scan the processing beam relative to the scanning area so as to generate an exposure scan vector, so that the The lateral offset between the exposure scan vector and an expected scan vector is less than 1/10 of the preset beam diameter. The device according to item 14 of the scope of patent application, wherein the scanning area is rectangular and the lateral offset is less than 1/10 ^{5 of} a scanning area length. The scope of the patent the device of Item 14, wherein the scanning area is rectangular and the lateral offset is less than 1/10 of the length of the scan area ^6. The device according to item 14 of the patent application scope, wherein the scan controller couples a plurality of scan control signals to the optical system, so that the scan control signals correspond to the scan vectors to at least 0.0015%. The device according to item 14 of the patent application scope, wherein the scan controller couples a plurality of scan control signals to the optical system, so that the scan control signals correspond to at least 0.0008% of the scan vectors. The device according to item 14 of the patent application scope, wherein the scan controller couples a plurality of scan control signals to the optical system, so that the scan control signals correspond to at least 0.0004% of the scan vectors. The device according to item 14 of the patent application scope, wherein the scan controller couples a plurality of scan control signals to the optical system, so that the scan control signals correspond to at least 0.0001% of the scan vectors.