{"id":1777,"date":"2021-12-29T13:14:05","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T13:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/?post_type=novanta_tech_paper&#038;p=1777"},"modified":"2026-06-26T13:34:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:34:42","slug":"high-quality-micro-processing","status":"publish","type":"novanta_tech_paper","link":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/resources\/whitepapers\/high-quality-micro-processing\/","title":{"rendered":"High Quality Micro-Processing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-technical-paper-overview\">Technical Paper Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-high-quality-micro-processing-with-picosecond-lasers\"><strong>High Quality Micro-Processing with Picosecond Lasers<\/strong><br><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beam roundness across depth of field, not power, decides micromachining quality.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In high-aspect-ratio micromachining \u2014 via-hole drilling in PCBs, glass substrates, probe cards, stainless steel \u2014 any imperfection in the focused beam amplifies across the depth of the cut. Asymmetric holes, tapered walls, microcracks in brittle materials, and surface roughness that demands post-processing aren&#8217;t laser-power problems. They&#8217;re beam-quality-over-depth problems that scale with aspect ratio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This technical paper documents how Novanta&#8217;s Dart 8 picosecond laser combined with the PRECESSION ELEPHANT multi-axis scan head delivers >93% beam roundness sustained across \u00b13 Rayleigh lengths \u2014 producing zero-taper 200 \u00b5m via holes in stainless steel and in 0.7 mm glass with entrance and exit diameters matching within 0.5 \u00b5m, and surface walls smooth enough to eliminate post-processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-key-takeaways-include\">Key takeaways include:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why beam roundness across depth of field \u2014 not focal spot at one plane \u2014 determines micromachining quality<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How 8 picosecond pulses keep Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) low enough to prevent microcracks in glass<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When to specify multi-axis scan heads (X\/Y\/Z + tilt): tapered holes, 90\u00b0 wall angles, undercuts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What integration matters: Dart + PRECESSION ELEPHANT from a single supplier with matched boresighting<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A practical reference geometry \u2014 200 \u00b5m via holes with <0.5 \u00b5m entrance\/exit diameter difference<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Download the full technical paper to get the Dart beam-roundness profile across \u00b13 Rayleigh lengths, side-by-side images of via holes in stainless steel and glass, and the integration rationale behind Novanta&#8217;s matched picosecond-laser-plus-scan-head sub-system \u2014 before specifying mismatched components that cap your micromachining quality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technical Paper Overview High Quality Micro-Processing with Picosecond Lasers Beam roundness across depth of field, not power, decides micromachining quality. In high-aspect-ratio micromachining \u2014 via-hole drilling in PCBs, glass substrates, probe cards, stainless steel \u2014 any imperfection in the focused beam amplifies across the depth of the cut. Asymmetric holes, tapered walls, microcracks in brittle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":1099,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"show_table_of_content":true},"class_list":["post-1777","novanta_tech_paper","type-novanta_tech_paper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>High Quality Micro-Processing - Precision Manufacturing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/resources\/whitepapers\/high-quality-micro-processing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High Quality Micro-Processing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Technical Paper Overview High Quality Micro-Processing with Picosecond Lasers Beam roundness across depth of field, not power, decides micromachining quality. In high-aspect-ratio micromachining \u2014 via-hole drilling in PCBs, glass substrates, probe cards, stainless steel \u2014 any imperfection in the focused beam amplifies across the depth of the cut. 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