The influence of different light sources of laser cutting machines on PCB separation

The application of laser cutting equipment is very broad. In the field of PCB depaneling, laser cutting is already a very mature product. It specializes in various precision cutting tasks, and the accuracy is often between millimeters, which is impossible to achieve with traditional cutting tools. Then many customers are also troubled when choosing, because the public impression given to us is that laser cutting machines are used to cut metals. Is it the same as laser cutting machines for cutting PCBs? In addition, what is the difference between fiber laser cutting, UV laser cutting machines and green light laser cutting machines? What is the impact of different light sources of laser cutting machines on PCB depaneling?

1.Why can't PCB laser cutting machines be formed in one go like metal cutting machines?

Depending on the material, the optical mode of PCB laser cutting machine is different. For example, when cutting aluminum substrates, copper substrates, and ceramic substrates, infrared fiber lasers are used. Like traditional metal laser cutting, it is also formed in one go. The fixed focus mode is usually called straight focus. Ultraviolet or green light lasers are used to cut materials such as glass fiber cloth substrates, composite substrates, paper substrates, resin substrates, etc., and the vibrator scanning mode is used to scan and peel layer by layer to form a cut.

2. What are the differences between fiber, green light, and UV laser cutting PCB circuit boards?

Infrared fiber laser cutting is mainly used for processing metal substrates and ceramic substrates. Green and UV laser cutting belong to the category of semiconductor lasers and are used to process ultra-thin metal substrates and non-metallic substrates.

Infrared fiber has greater power and greater thermal impact. Green light is slightly better than fiber laser and has less thermal impact. Ultraviolet laser is a processing method that destroys the molecular bonds of materials, with minimal thermal impact, and is also a non-metallic PCB cutting method. Green light will have slight carbonization during the circuit board processing, while ultraviolet laser can achieve very little carbonization or even no carbonization at all.

3. Why are green light and UV lasers recommended for cutting non-metallic PCB materials?

Compared with milling cutters, gong cutters, walking cutters and other methods, PCB laser cutting machines have high costs, and compared with milling cutters, gong cutters, walking cutters and other methods, the efficiency advantage is not great. In order to improve the competitiveness of PCB, laser cutting machine manufacturers have launched green laser cutting machines with lower market prices; on the other hand, 16 years ago, high-power UV lasers were more expensive, and there were no domestic high-power UV products. With the continuous development of laser technology, 15W With the continuous development of the above-mentioned high-power UV lasers, domestic lasers began to increase their power, forcing foreign UV lasers to reduce their prices. With the decline in the price of UV lasers, the development of the entire industry has increased. More and more PCB laser cutting machine manufacturers have begun to launch high-power UV laser cutting machines, while the launch of green laser cutting machines is relatively small.

The main difference between UV laser cutting machine and green laser cutting machine lies in equipment cost, processing efficiency, processing effect and processing purpose. UV laser cutting machine PCB can consider FPC soft board cutting, IC chip cutting and some ultra-thin metal cutting, while high-power green laser cutting machine is cutting PCB only one field can only do PCB cuttinghard board, in FPC soft board, IC chip can also be cut, but the cutting effect is much lower than UV laser. Compared with UV laser cutting machine, green laser cutting machine has lower price and higher processing efficiency in the early stage. However, with the increase of UV laser cutting machine power, this advantage gradually stabilizes. In terms of processing effect, since the UV laser cutting machine is a cold light source, the heat effect is small and the effect is more ideal.

In summary, the cutting of PCB circuit boards (non-metal substrates, ceramic substrates) adopts the vibration mirror scanning mode to peel off layer by layer, and high-power UV laser cutting machines are used in the mainstream PCB market.