Direct Patterning of Ceramic Circuit Board with Q-Switched Nd:YAG Laser

Direct patterning of copper coated ceramic circuit board is experimentally investigated with Q-switched Nd:YAG laser in order to shorten the time of the trial manufacture of electronic circuit board and to adapt the flexible design change. It is pointed out that the fast direct patterning the speed of which reaches about 100 mm/s is possible if the repetition frequency and the average power are selected properly. Furthermore cutting off and/or drilling of ceramic board are also possible under the condition that the repetition frequency is less than 3kHz. This technique makes it possible the mask1ess patterning of ceramic circuit board which has been widely used recently in place of conventional glass-epoxy or phenolic resin circuit board, and it leads to the shorter time limit of delivery as compared with the conventional end-milling method.