Lasers with ultraviolet (UV) output offer unique benefits for processing a wide range of materials. In particular, the short wavelength, high energy UV photons experience less diffraction than longer visible or infrared wavelengths, which enables materials processing at higher spatial resolution. In addition, UV lasers micromachine primarily by non-thermal means, thus minimizing the heat affected zone during laser processing. Excimer lasers emitting in the UV region deliver pulse energies scalable up to 1000 mJ and output powers up to many hundred watts. Thus, they are the key to fast and effective large area ablation and to machining structures as small as one micron. As a consequence, excimer lasers are the preferred laser technology when it comes to high-performance laser microprocessing with unsurpassed quality and repeatability. As a result, excimer lasers are increasingly employed for many demanding, high precision tasks in semiconductor fabrication, display manufacture, medical device production and scientific research. This article explores some of these applications as well as recent advances in the excimer laser technology that has been developed to service them.
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