New mask design approach for UV laser micromachining to reduce stitching errors

This paper describes a new approach to mask design as well as a new pulsed laser micromachining strategy referred to as 'Common Nest' (CN) to reduce stitching errors, need for programming offsets, and alignment problems. The CN mask design approach breaks down a microchannel pattern shape into subfeature shapes which are related by a common origin. CN allows major improvements to be made in the accuracy, speed, and efficiency with which complex microstructures can be created by laser ablation. The details and a computer-aided design tool concept design for this method are presented. Experiments to evaluate this method and examples of Y-shaped and serpentine microchannel machining are reported.