Industries

Biomedical 3D manufacturing is an ever growing topic. Femtosecond laser-based 3D multiphoton polymerization is a superb tool for fabrication of micro-scaffolds with complex functional architectures, wide-scaled and out of any relevant material.

Producing of photonic devices based on high-resolution (up to hundreds of nm) single features for applications in visible and IR part of the spectrum. Fabrication of microoptics of any desirable shape as the optimized surface geometries allow minimising aberrations or creating exotic light distributions, like, for instance, Bessel beams or optical vortexes. Coupling the superb positioning accuracy with high resolution fabrication enables arbitrary shaped profiles of microlenses surface roughness suitable for optical applications. 3D structure of arbitrary geometry on the fiber tip.

Femtosecond laser 3D micro-machining brings entirely new possibilities to medical device fabrication. Objects with controllable feature sizes that can be smaller, bigger or at the cell size can be produced. This leads to capability to produce new generation medical devices, such as cell perforators, micro-robots and similar. They combine extremely small size and unmatched functionality, paving the way for completely new outlook to medical device design and fabrication.

The advent of Industry 4.0 dictates complete liability and traceability for all the high-tech products. It is crucial to both track the functionality of each single device and avoid counterfeiting. This is especially true in medicine, where defected or fraudulent device can result in sever worsening of patient’s condition or even death. To combat this an individual tracking system based on cloud solutions and highly advanced marking must be employed. Femtosecond lasers are superb tools to provide the marking for this application. It combines possibility to produce QR code at sizes down to several micrometers and do it on arbitrary material. Additionally, device suffers no thermal damage or other side-effects outside marking area, which is crucial for maintaining the functionality of medical device/component after the marking.

When extremely confined (bellow several hundred micrometers) liquids start to exhibit highly non-trivial behavior. This can be exploited for drug development/production, life-sciences or fundamental research to name a few. Amplified femtosecond lasers were shown to be extremely capable in producing microfluidical components. As they can be realized for both additive and subtractive manufacturing channels, arbitrary free form integrated elements and bonding can be realized with only one laser micro-machining setup. This opens an array of new possibilities which can enrich this active research area with new set of capabilities.

Research on mechanics dates to Antique times and is fundamental driving force behind most of the current technology. With the general trend of downsizing it is only natural to reduce size of various mechanical elements as well. 3D femtosecond micro-manufacturing provides the steppingstone for downsizing mechanical elements down to sub-micrometer scale. What is more, due to diverse light-matter interaction regimes achievable with fs pulses it is possible to produce these elements from wide range of materials, starting with polymers and ending with glasses, dielectric crystals or metals. Gears, springs, cantilevers and other classical mechanical elements can be produced in micro-scale using this method.

Industrial material processing is currently completely reliant on lasers and other specialized light-based solutions on all levels of the process. Functional surfaces are incredibly important in the fields ranging from medicine to space exploration. The surfaces created with fs pulses can be easily made both repelling and adhering, playing into needs of basically any application, including tool manufacturing, aviation, maritime and medicine.

Due to diverse processing regimes femtosecond processing can be exploited in electronics industry in variety of ways. Additive manufacturing of conductive medium is possible, enabling true 3D electrical components. Cutting or scribing of electrical contacts is also an opinion, especially after factoring in minimal heat effected zone of femtosecond laser. Additionally, alongside direct processing, laser can be used in indirect roles as well. It can produce high precision substrates for electronics, which can be cut in any pattern, including trenches, holes and etc. With such capabilities femtosecond lasers are applied in electronics industry more and more.