Quasi-CW UV Laser

Two new quasi-CW UV lasers from Coherent Inc. (Santa Clara, CA; www.Coherent.com) deliver the highest power currently available for products of this type, according to the company. Specifically, the Paladin Advanced 355-10000 and Paladin Advanced 355-16000 are mode-locked, frequency tripled, diode pumped, solid-state lasers that offer 10W and 16W of power respectively at 355 nm (at 80 MHz). In addition to high power, the lasers deliver a high quality, TEM₀₀ beam (M²<1.2) with excellent stability and low noise characteristics (<1% rms from 10 Hz to 2 MHz). Additionally, both these models offer improved operating efficiency over their lower power predecessors, resulting in a reduced cost per Watt in terms of both purchase price and operating expense. And, because these new Paladin Advanced lasers share nearly all of the same mechanical and optical characteristics as the lower power models, there is a
straightforward migration path for system builders looking to take advantage of their increased power and efficiency.

The unique combination of high power, quasi-CW, UV output and superior beam characteristics make these Paladin Advanced lasers ideal for a variety of applications in microelectronics fabrication, flat panel display manufacturing, solar cell production, and bioinstrumentation. They are particularly well suited for Laser Direct Imaging of printed circuit boards, where their higher power delivers increased throughput and improved spatial resolution, and also provides users the option of using less sensitive, lower cost photoresists. Similarly, they offer improved throughput for inspection of patterned and non-patterned semiconductor wafers. High UV power also makes them useful for a number of structuring and patterning tasks in flat panel display and solar cell production. In the printing industry, these same characteristics enable direct imaging (Computer-To-Plate) of flexographic printing plates.