UV laser radiation for microstructuring of photostructurable glasses

Abstract

Photostructurable glasses are important materials for applications in microsystems. They enable structures with high aspect ratios and a high dependability of mechanical, optical and chemical properties in a large range of temperatures. The exposure of photostructurable glasses to UV laser radiation, as a rapid prototyping technique, is an alternative method to the exposure by a mask aligner. Α photostructurable glass (FS21) was exposed to UV laser radiation of the wavelengths 248, 308 and 355 nm. Investigated was the influenee of the exposure parameters wavelength of laser radiation and energy density on structuring results such as crystallization depth, lateral geometry of crystallized areas, structure of crystallized areas and etch angle for single pulse exposure.