Development of Micormirror Laser Scanning Mechanism for Laser Marking/Engraving/Etching System

激光打标/雕刻/蚀刻（之后用“激光打标”来表示）使用激光束穿过材料表面来改变其属性（例如，颜色），或通过蒸发/熔化将材料去除到一定深度，例如形成所需的图案。它已广泛应用于制造业和消费品行业。激光打标系统由激光源（如CO2激光器、光纤激光器、Nd:YAG或Nd:YVO激光器）、激光束矢量扫描机构和控制软件组成。传统的激光束扫描机构由两个振镜反射镜或两个伺服/步进电机驱动反射镜组成。它还包括其他组件，如编码器，驱动卡，散热器和电源供应商。总尺寸为3 ~ 4升。成本约2500美元，约占整个激光打标的50%。Lumicision Inc.是GTA公司（位于里士满山），专业生产激光加工设备和提供激光打标服务。在公司进入这个市场几年后，他们意识到他们的激光打标机中传统的激光扫描机构太笨重，太昂贵。该公司长期以来一直在寻找一种成本更低、尺寸更小的替代方案，以取代传统的激光扫描机制。针对上述问题，本应用提出了一种解决方案，即在激光打标机中使用微镜对激光束进行矢量扫描，取代传统的激光扫描机构。与传统的振镜或伺服/步进电机驱动镜相比，微镜具有更小/更简单的结构和驱动电路，因为微镜的质量非常小，无需任何散热器即可驱动。基于微镜的激光束扫描机构体积小于0.05升，比传统设计的激光束扫描机构体积小50倍。此外，微镜适合大规模制造，即在一片晶圆上同时制造数百或数千个微镜，这使得微镜的单价非常低，例如10美元。包括微镜和驱动/控制电路在内的成本是1

Laser marking/engraving/etching (the term is represented by "laser marking" thereafter) uses a laser beamacross the surface of a material to alter the property (e.g., color), or remove the materials to a certain depththrough vaporization/melting, such as to form desired patterns. It has been widely used in fabrication andconsumer product industries. A laser marking system consists of the laser source (e.g., CO2 laser, fiber laser,Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO laser), the laser beam vector scanning mechanism and controlling software. The laserbeam scanning mechanism is traditionally comprised of two galvanometer mirrors or two servo/stepper motordriven mirrors. It also includes other components such as encoders, driving cards, heatsinks and a powersupplier. The total size is 3 ~ 4 liters. The cost is about USD 2500, which is ~ 50% of the total laser marking.Lumicision Inc. is a GTA company (located in Richmond Hill) and specializes in manufacturing lasermachining machines and providing laser marking service. After the company entered this market for a fewyears, they realized the traditional laser scanning mechanism in their laser marking machines is too bulky andtoo expensive. The company has been long looking for an alternative solution of much lower cost and smallersize to the traditional laser scanning mechanism in their laser marking machines.This application proposes a solution to address the above problem, i.e., using micromirrors to vector scan thelaser beam to replace the traditional laser scanning mechanism in the laser marking machine. The micromirrorhas much smaller/simpler structure and driving circuit than traditional galvanometer or servo/stepper motorsdriven mirrors because the micromirror's mass is very small, which requires every little power to drive withoutneeding any heatsink. The micromirror based laser beam scanning mechanism is about 0.05 liter or less, whichis ~ 50 times smaller than that of the traditional design. In addition, micromirrors are suitable for massfabrication, i.e., hundreds or thousands are fabricated on one wafer at the same time, which leads to very lowunit mirror price, e.g., 10s dollars. The cost including the micromirror and the driving/control circuit is one