Micro-Nano Processing: Femtosecond Laser vs. Picosecond Laser – How to Choose Tool?
In high-precision fields such as microelectronic manufacturing, medical device R...
MONO | 2025-11
INDUSTRY
Tungsten (W) is an extremely hard, silvery-gray rare metal. As the metal with the highest melting point in nature (3422°C), it maintains structural stability in the ultra-high-temperature environment of nuclear fusion devices. Second only to carbon in hardness, it has a density of 19.25g/cm³, along with excellent thermal and electrical conductivity, and can resist corrosion and oxidation even at high temperatures.
These properties make tungsten an "irreplaceable material" in key fields such as high-temperature aerospace components, semiconductor test probes, and X-ray collimators for medical equipment. However, precisely because of its high hardness and high melting point, achieving high-precision, damage-free micro-machining of tungsten has always been a major challenge in the manufacturing industry.
Ordinary bullets can barely damage tungsten cubes. In precision machining scenarios:
• Traditional mechanical machining methods (e.g., drilling, milling) cause severe tool wear, chipping, or even breakage, and are prone to material edge chipping and cracking.
• Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) relies on electrode discharge to remove material, but tungsten’s high melting point leads to residual microcracks and recast layers in the machining area. Additional polishing processes are required, and the electrode wear rate is high—making it difficult to control accuracy within ±5μm, while efficiency remains low.
Faced with these challenges, femtosecond laser, with its unique mechanism, has become the optimal solution to break through the limits of tungsten machining.
Femtosecond laser is a type of short-pulse laser. When extremely high pulse energy is focused on the tungsten surface, the interaction time is far shorter than the heat conduction time inside the material. After absorbing energy, the material has almost no time to melt; instead, it is "instantly" removed through sublimation and vaporization. This process is called "cold ablation," which brings the following unparalleled advantages:
• Stress-Free Damage: Non-contact machining avoids cracks and deformation of thin-walled, brittle materials caused by mechanical force.
• No Heat-Affected Zone (HAZ): Fundamentally eliminates thermal damage, recast layers, and metallographic changes, perfectly preserving tungsten’s original physical properties.
• Sub-Micron Precision: The focused spot size ranges from 10 to 30 microns. Combined with closed-loop motion control (positioning accuracy ±1μm), the machining edge roughness reaches Ra≤0.2μm, meeting semiconductor-grade precision requirements.
• Broad Material Adaptability: Efficiently machines pure tungsten, tungsten steel, tungsten carbide, etc., without being limited by material composition or hardness.
Suitable for thin tungsten sheets (≤0.5mm thick), with a hole diameter range of 10-250μm. The inlet and outlet shapes are consistent, and accuracy is ±1μm. There are no recast layers or debris deposition at the hole edges. The machining speed for a single hole in an array is 2-5 seconds, meeting the needs of dense hole arrays such as fuel cell flow field plates and optical screens.
Taper-free square through-holes are machined on 0.2mm-thick tungsten sheets, with a minimum square hole size of 80μm and an R-angle of ≤20μm. The edge roughness is Ra≤0.2μm, solving the machining challenges of special-shaped structures such as collimators and sensor probes.
Special-shaped contours are cut on tungsten sheets without cracks, and edges are smooth. It can cut ultra-narrow line widths down to 6μm and achieve 25μm taper-free slits, suitable for high-precision components such as spectrometer slits and aerospace valve plates.
Dense wire grooves (50μm deep × 65μm wide) are etched on the surface of tungsten steel rollers, with no recast layers or molten residue. This helps upgrade the performance of components such as tool bits and rollers.
Monochromatic Tech specializes in femtosecond laser technology research and application, and has developed a systematic solution tailored to the unique properties of tungsten.
1. Advanced Equipment Support: Multiple dedicated devices are equipped with independently developed ultra-short pulse lasers, enabling integrated cutting, drilling, and etching. With micron-level precision control and machining stability exceeding the industry average, they can meet both complex prototyping needs in the R&D stage and efficient operation for mass production.
2. Profound Process Expertise: A professional process team is equipped with precision testing equipment such as Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) and white light interferometers, ensuring machining quality meets strict design standards.
3. Rich Case Empowerment: We have extensive cases in tungsten micro-nano machining, covering diverse materials (pure tungsten, tungsten alloys, tungsten carbide) and various structures (micro-holes, slits, square holes, surface textures). We quickly match the optimal parameter combination (power, scanning speed, pulse frequency, etc.) to improve R&D and production efficiency.
In the field of precision manufacturing, the limits of materials often determine the upper limit of products. As a cutting-edge machining process, femtosecond laser technology is becoming a core tool to break through the machining bottlenecks of high-hardness materials such as tungsten. If you are facing challenges in tungsten machining or want to elevate your product precision to a new level, please feel free to contact us—our expert team will work with you to explore the best solution.
