Industrial Femtosecond Micromachining
Cold-ablation processing of hard, brittle, and heat-sensitive materials — sapphire, diamond, ceramics, glass, polymers — with low HAZ and sub-micron precision.
Step 1 — Define your goal
What are you trying to achieve?
Pick the experiment / project closest to yours. We'll route you to the right system architecture and BOM.
Step 2 — Confirm the problem
Common project challenges
If any of these sound familiar, you're in the right place. WaveQuanta engineers have seen — and solved — every one of them.
Material processing window discovery
What pulse energy, rep rate, and overlap give you the best edge quality?
Wavelength + pulse-width selection
Fs vs ps; 1030 vs 515 vs 343 nm — different materials want different combinations.
Beam quality and focal control
Spot size at sample, depth of focus, M² requirements for sub-micron features.
Throughput vs quality trade-off
Bursts, GHz repetition rate, multi-spot — how to scale process speed without losing edge quality.
Real-time process monitoring
Catching drift before you scrap a panel.
Heat-affected zone (HAZ) control
Even fs lasers produce some HAZ at high rep rate / overlap.
Scanner and optics matching
Galvo + F-theta vs telecentric + XY stage for your part geometry.
Pilot-to-production scaling
1 part / hour to 1000 parts / hour without losing the recipe.
Step 3 — Understand the system
Typical system architecture
Most projects in this area follow a similar signal flow. Your specific architecture depends on resolution, throughput, and form-factor targets.
Sealed industrial fs source — 1030 / 515 / 343 nm, 20–500 W, with reliability for 24/7 operation.
Power control, polarization, beam shaping before the focusing optics.
Match laser beam diameter to scanner aperture for diffraction-limited focusing.
Telecentric or F-theta — chooses depth of focus, field size, and spot size.
High-speed beam steering — kHz scan speed, sub-µrad jitter.
Step 4 — Pick the modules
Recommended system modules
These are the building blocks. Each module is a category of products — pick the right brand and grade for your project stage below.
Industrial Femtosecond Laser
Sealed industrial fs source — 1030 / 515 / 343 nm, 20–500 W, with reliability for 24/7 operation.
- Yb fiber 1030 nm · 20–500 W
- SHG / THG harmonic options
- Sealed industrial enclosure
- Reliability for 24/7 production
Beam Delivery Optics
Power control, polarization, beam shaping before the focusing optics.
- Variable attenuator + λ/2 + PBS
- Beam shaper for top-hat profile
- Shutter & beam dump
Beam Expander
Match laser beam diameter to scanner aperture for diffraction-limited focusing.
- Motorized 2×–10× expansion
- Matched coatings
- Low wavefront distortion
F-Theta Scan Lens
Telecentric or F-theta — chooses depth of focus, field size, and spot size.
- F-theta f100 / f160 / f254
- Telecentric for thicker work
- AR-coated for chosen wavelength
Galvanometer Scanner
High-speed beam steering — kHz scan speed, sub-µrad jitter.
- 2-axis galvo · 12 mm aperture
- Real-time rastering control
- Digital servo, < 50 µrad jitter
Power & Beam Diagnostics
Pulse-by-pulse energy + beam quality monitoring on the work line.
- Pulse energy meter (per-pulse)
- Beam profiler
- Thermal head for total power
Process Monitoring Camera
Co-axial vision through the scanner for in-process imaging and post-process inspection.
- Co-axial vision system
- Illumination ring
- 4K imaging
Wavelength Conversion Module
SHG / THG modules to 515 nm and 343 nm for harder materials and finer features.
- SHG to 515 nm
- THG to 343 nm
- BBO / LBO with harmonic separator
Step 5 — Match your project stage
Choose your project stage
Same modules, three configurations sized for where your project is today. Move up the tiers as you progress from research to validation to OEM.
Research Starter
Process feasibility / R&D
Bench-mounted process bench for a small set of parts. Validates the laser-material interaction window before you commit to a production tool.
- Stock industrial fs laser · 1030 nm
- Manual XY + galvo
- F-theta lens, beam expander
- Manual diagnostics
- Microscope for offline inspection
BOM tier: $80k – $200k
Engineering Validation
Pilot line / process recipe
Locked-spec processing line for pilot manufacturing. Multi-wavelength, encoded stage, real-time diagnostics, with documented process recipe.
- Yb fs · multi-wavelength chain (1030/515/343)
- Encoded XY + galvo + F-theta
- In-line pulse + beam diagnostics
- Vision-based monitoring
- Documented process recipe
- Reliability test plan
BOM tier: $300k – $1M
OEM Production
Equipment OEM · 24/7 line
Sealed industrial system for an OEM tool, with full recipe export, SECS/GEM, and long-term supply.
- Sealed industrial fs / ps laser
- Closed-loop wavelength control
- High-throughput galvo + telecentric
- Integrated SECS/GEM
- Full quality docs (CE / SEMI)
- Long-term supply contract
BOM tier: $1M+ · contract
Step 6 — Run the numbers
Recommended calculators
Sanity-check your design before talking to an engineer.
Step 7 — Configure the system
Configure your setup with our engineering tools
Two ways to go from "this is what I want to do" to "this is the BOM I need".
Open Micromachining Virtual Lab
Configure laser, beam expander, scanner, and F-theta. Validate working envelope, export a BOM, share with your equipment vendor.
Launch Virtual LabAsk AI to scope my fs micromachining process
Describe the material, feature size, throughput, and quality target. AI Concierge proposes wavelength, pulse width, optics, and a development BOM.
Open AI ConciergeStep 8 — Anchor SKUs
Featured products for this application
Common picks for this application area. Your final BOM will pull from a wider catalog and be sized to your project tier.
Yi-Laser
HELIOS Femtosecond Laser
Yi-Laser
HYPERION-G MPC Pulse Compressor
WaveQuanta
800 nm Chirped Mirror PC1332m-AR-100-25
WaveQuanta
Encoded XY Translation Stage
LBTek
Aspheric Fiber Collimator AFCS-1064 (1064 nm)
WaveQuanta
Harmonic Beam Splitter HR515 nm / HT1030 nm @ 45°
Princeton Instruments
Pulse Energy Meter
WaveQuanta
Kalas Large Beam Analyzer (High-Power)
Step 9 — Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the questions our application engineers hear most often.
Femtosecond or picosecond — which for my material?
Sapphire / glass / ceramic: fs preferred for sub-µm chipping. Polymers: fs avoids melt zone. Metals: ps often sufficient and 5× cheaper. CFRP composites: fs strongly preferred to avoid fiber pullout.
How fast can I run a galvo scanner?
Mechanical galvos: 1–10 m/s scan speed, kHz line rate. Resonant scanners: 30+ kHz line rate, faster but smaller field. Polygon scanners for very high throughput. Match scanner speed to laser rep rate × spot pitch — running too fast leaves gaps; too slow loses throughput.
What HAZ should I expect with fs laser?
Pure cold ablation with fs has <1 µm HAZ. But at high rep rate (>1 MHz), thermal accumulation kicks in and HAZ grows. The sweet spot: 200–800 kHz rep rate for most industrial processes.
Can fs lasers replace mechanical cutting / drilling?
For sub-mm features in hard / brittle / heat-sensitive materials: yes, fs replaces mechanical with better edge quality, no tool wear, and design flexibility. For large bulk material removal: no, mechanical is still faster.
How do you handle thermal drift over 24h?
Three pillars: (1) sealed industrial laser (Yi-Laser HELIOS), (2) closed-loop power monitoring with AOM attenuation, (3) thermally controlled enclosure. Together they hold pulse energy ±1 % over 24 h.
Can WaveQuanta provide the full process recipe?
For Engineering Validation tier and above, yes — we run process qualification on your specific material samples and deliver a documented recipe (laser settings, scan strategy, focal trajectory).
What's the realistic system uptime?
Sealed industrial fs lasers (Yi-Laser HELIOS, Amplitude Tangor): >99 % uptime over 12 months. Including planned maintenance: ~95 % effective uptime. Lab-grade fs: lower (~90 %) but cheaper.
Long-term supply for OEM equipment makers?
Yi-Laser fs lasers and WaveQuanta optics modules support 5+ year supply contracts with batch-consistency reports. Standard for SEMI / medical OEM customers.
Step 10 — Engineering Review
Application Engineering Review
Tell us your application, current setup, and project context. A WaveQuanta application engineer will return initial recommendations within 1 business day.
- 1 Application
- 2 Current setup
- 3 Project & purchase