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Content archived on 2023-03-24

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Hiperdias - High throughPut LasER processing of DIamond and Silicon

Hiperdias (HIgh throughPut LasER processing of DIamond and Silicon) has successfully answered the call H2020 ICT‐27‐2015 High-throughput laser-based manufacturing. The project started on 1 February 2016 with a consortium directed by Dr. M Abdou Ahmed, head of the Laser Development and Laser Optics department of the IFSW (University of Stuttgart) and is being conducted in cooperation with a number of expert partners; Amplitude Systems (FR), Gesellschaft fur Angewandte Mikro – und Optoelektron.

There are three main applications of the Hiperdias Project: Fine Cutting of Metal, 3D Silicon Processing and Diamond Polishing. The major impacts that Hiperdias will bring is the fact that the cutting processes in the watch/jewellery and medical industry can move from conventional machining to laser machining for high end parts. In terms of 3D Silicon machining, Hiperdias will secure a targeted ablation rate of at least 1mm³/s for the benchmark geometry in this application which is a major leap in performance of this area. Hiperdias will also have a huge impact in the Diamond Polishing industry where it will allow for an improvement of the yield of the diamond leveling process along with a reduction in the number of steps. Other positive impacts As there is an ever increasing demand for miniaturisation through micro-engineering in our everyday lives, Hiperdias promises to deliver advances in a number of other applications including: electronics, consumer products, biomedicine, photonics, energy storage and generation. Strengthening Europe’s position in high efficiency laser-based processing HIPERDIAS features a critical mass of research, development, innovation, end-use and exploitation partners to further strengthen Europe’s position in high power, high efficiency laser-based processing of important materials in the manufacturing sector. It will strengthen the manufacturing base in photonics to safeguard the further potential for innovation and value creation and to maintain jobs, and better exploit the innovation capacity of existing photonics SMEs – European photonics companies SMEs: AMP, AMO, C4L, LASEA, and GLO Photonics will benefit from integration into the value chain supplying these major end-users and in broader post-project collaboration. The project promises to deliver multi-factor increases in the respective throughput processing of silicon. BOSCH predict an increase in productivity by a factor of 10 vs. SOA mechanical processing and 30 vs. current lab results in laser processing. In terms of diamond processing E6 expect a 6-10 times increase in productivity respectively when compared to SoA with USP. C4L also expects to demonstrate significant (up to 10 times) throughput improvements in the cutting of fine metal for the watch and medical industries. The laser architecture will be based on fully-passive amplifier stages using well-established Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) approach and combining fiber, bulk and thin-disk laser technologies. High overall efficiency of the complete amplifier chain will be targeted by the implementation of highly efficient pulse compressor gratings. These latter shall exhibit an overall efficiency (i.e. after 4-passes through the grating) higher than 96% (corresponding to a single pass diffraction efficiency higher than 99%). The developed pulse compression gratings will demonstrate very high performances in terms of diffraction efficiency and laser induced damage threshold (LIDT). A photonic microcell (PMC) module for fibre-delivery of ultra-short, high powers (>500W and up to 1kW), pulse will be developed for flexible application. Furthermore, the developed machine integrated systems will be demonstrated in demanding high-performance applications to fulfil the requirement (especially for the optical component) at kW-class USP. Commercially available scanners will be customized and used in order to handle the high powers aimed in HIPERDIAS. HIPERDIAS results will be validated in three important applications capitalising upon the commitment of end-users BOSCH and E6 and a further five industrial partners to do so. The project is progressing well and has already defined the necessary end-user requirements for its 3 main target applications. With buyers already interested in the technology Hiperdias will change the face of micromachining as we know it.

Keywords

Lasers, 3D Silicon Processing

Countries

Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Ireland, United Kingdom