Good-Quality and High-Efficiency Dicing for Thick LiNbO(3) Wafers Using Picosecond Laser Pulses

Lithium niobate (LiNbO(3)) has become popular with applications in electronics and communication industries due to its excellent electro-optical and nonlinear properties. This paper presents the influence of laser power, repetition frequency, number of subpulses, depth of each pass, and scanning velocity in picosecond laser dicing on multiple characteristics of LiNbO(3) using the Taguchi method. By means of analysis of variance and analysis of relations between the characteristics, the optimal ps-laser-dicing parameter is obtained with good quality and high efficiency, which is applied to LiNbO(3) products. The result indicates that picosecond laser dicing provides an alternative to machine thick LiNbO(3) wafers with narrow kerf width, micro chipping, smooth surface, and high productivity.