Transparent materials cover a wide range of substances from glasses e.g. Borosilicate through to transparent ceramics e.g. Sapphire.
As a class of materials, transparent substrates can be traditionally difficult to machine. They can range from the very hard materials such as gorilla glass through to soft polymers with low melting points, for example polycarbonates.
As such, laser micromachining of these materials can prove more difficult than many other materials due to their transparent optical properties. However, with the correct choice of laser, high quality high precision micromachining is possible. The lasers of choice tend to be ultrafast lasers in either in the picosecond or femtosecond regime. These lasers often perform processing tasks that are just not possible with any other traditional machining techniques.
Feature sizes of a few microns and upwards are possible when machining materials such as diamond, transparent conductive oxides (TCOs), as well as polymers such as PET etc and many more.
A sample of transparent materials we can machine include:
Fused Silica | Glass (Borosilicate) | Toughened Glass | Sapphire | Plus many more...
The materials detailed above are purely a summary overview, therefore if the material you are interested in working in is not listed, please contact us.