1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to sapphire machining, and particularly to a device to cut a sapphire substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
Sapphires have excellent mechanical and optical properties and therefore are used in electronic devices. For example, the sapphire has high scratch and abrasion resistance and therefore can be used as a cover glass of a lens module or a front cover of a cell phone to protect the lens module or the cell phone from being scratched or abraded. However, as the sapphire has a high hardness (9 Mohs scale), it is difficult to cut the sapphire to obtain desired shapes and sizes. Micro-cracks may be introduced by a cutting process and therefore grinding and polishing processes are required, which decreases efficiency of production.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a device for cutting sapphire that can overcome the above-mentioned problems.
Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure.
Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.
The pulse width of the laser beam 110 is short enough to reduce thermal reaction between the laser beam 120 and the sapphire substrate 20. As such, hot-melt problems conventionally happening to a cut surface are avoided and smoothness of the cut surface is improved. As a consequence, grinding and polishing processes are not needed any more and efficiency is increased. In addition, as the picoseconds laser 100 has a higher repetition frequency, as compared with conventional lasers, cutting speed can therefore be increased, further improving the efficiency.
The picoseconds laser 100 can be an ultrasonic, green, or near-infrared laser. A wavelength of the laser beam 110 can be about 355 nm, 343 nm, 266 nm, 532 nm, 515 nm, 1030 nm, or 1064 nm. The repetition frequency of the laser beam 110 can be adjusted.
The device 10 also includes a shell 300. The shell 300 defines a receiving space 310, which has an opening 312. The picoseconds laser 100 is received in the receiving space 310 and is aimed at the opening 312. The collimator lens 200 seals the opening 312 and collimates the laser beam 110.
The device 10 further includes a worktable 400. The worktable 400 includes a table 410, a mechanical arm 420, and a controller 430. The table 410 supports the sapphire substrate 20. The table 410 defines a slit 412. The sapphire substrate 20 is positioned across the slit 412. The mechanical arm 420 is positioned above the table 410 and can move the shell 300. The collimated laser beam 120 passes through the slit 412. The controller 430 controls the mechanical arm 420 to drive the shell 300 to move such that the collimated moves along a predetermined trajectory and the picoseconds laser 100 is switched on and switched off to cut the sapphire substrate 20 as desired. In this embodiment, the predetermined trajectory coincides with the slit 412 to protect the table 410 from laser damage.
The table 410 also defines a circular hole 414. The circular hole 414 communicates with the slit 412 or in other embodiments is separated from the slit 412. The sapphire substrate 20 can be positioned to cover the circular hole. The predetermined trajectory can be a circle falling within the circular hole 414. That is, the device 10 can cut a circular piece (not shown) from the sapphire substrate 20 without cutting the table 410.
It will be understood that the above particular embodiments are shown and described by way of illustration only. The principles and the features of the present disclosure may be employed in various and numerous embodiments thereof without departing from the scope of the disclosure. The above-described embodiments illustrate the possible scope of the disclosure but do not restrict the scope of the disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102102819 | Jan 2013 | TW | national |