OERLIKON BALZERS COATING (UK) LIMITED Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20100272959 | METHOD AND UNIT FOR MICRO-STRUCTURING A MOVING SUBSTRATE - A method for exposing a polymer or other substrate (S) to patterned illumination from a pulsed laser source ( | 10-28-2010 |
20100015397 | METHOD AND TOOL FOR PATTERNING THIN FILMS ON MOVING SUBSTRATES - A method for forming a regularly repeating pattern in a thin film on a substrate by ablating it directly with radiation form a pulsed laser beam characterised in that the radiation beam is caused to pass through a suitable mask delineating the pattern, the image of the mask pattern being de-magnified onto the surface of the film by a suitable projection lens so that the energy density at the film is sufficiently high so as to cause the film to be removed directly by ablation, the imprinting steps being carried out: in a repetitive series of discrete laser ablation steps using a mask that is stationary with respect to the projection lens and represents only a small area of the total area of the substrate and using a single short pulse of radiation at each step to illuminate the mask, the radiation pulse having such an energy density at the substrate that it is above the threshold value for ablation of the film; and the series of discrete laser ablation steps being repeated over the full area of the surface of a substrate, to give a full pattern comprising a plurality of pixels, by moving the laser beam or substrate in a direction parallel to one axis of the pattern to be formed on the substrate and activating the pulsed laser mask illumination light source at the instant that the substrate or beam has moved over a distance equivalent to a complete number of periods of the repeating pattern on the substrate. | 01-21-2010 |
20090324903 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LASER BEAM ALIGNMENT FOR SOLAR PANEL SCRIBING - A method is described for accurately positioning laser scribed lines in a thin top layer of material which overcoats one or more other lower layers in which lines have already been scribed for the purpose of making solar panels. This is accomplished by means of an optics unit that generates one or more laser beams in order to scribe one or more lines in the top layer on the panel. An alignment detector system is attached to the optics unit and the detector is displaced from the optics unit by a distance such that the detector measures the position of one of the scribes in the lower layers in the area of the panel that will be scribed at a subsequent time. A control and motion system accepts data from the alignment detector attached to the optics unit and uses the data to correct the relative position of the optics unit with respect to the panel in the direction perpendicular to the scribe direction in order to cause the laser scribed lines to be accurately placed with respect to lines already scribed in the lower layer. A motion system moves the panel with respect to the optics unit and the associated alignment detector such that the detector follows the path of one or more of the lines scribed in one of the lines scribed in one of the lower layers and measures the position of the line or lines over the full length while laser scribing of the top layer by the optics unit proceeds in a different area of the panel. The invention further comprises a laser ablation tool for carrying out the method as aforesaid. | 12-31-2009 |