CO2 Laser Scribing Silicon Wafer?

[Bill Jermyn]

Does anyone have any experience/tips for scribing 16 mil silicon wafers? Can it be done?

[Rich Harman]

I have no experience but I have heard that silicon is transparent to CO2 wavelengths.

[Dan Hintz]

Not with a CO2... a low-wattage YAG/Fiber would do it quite well, though...

[Martin Boekers]

Not sure of the make up, but I have a handful of Discs probably from the sixties in a veriety of sizes
that were taken from main frame computers. In the past we have rotary engraved on them and I have
lasered a few (though it's been a while) They are copper on color and if I recall correctly it sort of bleached the
color out, don't remember offhand if it actually deep etched or not.

Is this the type of thing you are looking to do? Old computer discs? If so I'll dig one out and try it, post a photo
and settings of the results.

[Joe Hillmann]

What are you trying to do with them?

[Lee DeRaud]

Not sure of the make up, but I have a handful of Discs probably from the sixties in a veriety of sizes
that were taken from main frame computers. In the past we have rotary engraved on them and I have
lasered a few (though it's been a while) They are copper on color and if I recall correctly it sort of bleached the
color out, don't remember offhand if it actually deep etched or not.Those are iron oxide (high-tech rust, same stuff as on mag tape) coated onto aluminum platters. Sounds like they behave about the same as anodized or painted aluminum.

[Bill Jermyn]

No, these are silicon wafers to be used to manufacture computer chips. The idea is to score them with a laser so that they can be subsequently broken into chips, much as you would cut glass.

[matthew knott]

Thats hi-tech stuff, have you ever been in a wafer fab plant? I have! millions of pounds worth of equipments, total clean room enviroment, everything controlled to the nth degree. Not something you can really do at home and you will need a solid state laser just to cut it and even then it wont be anywhere near upto the spec needed for making chips.

[Bill Jermyn]

Well so much for that job then. Thanks everybody for the feedback.

[Dan Hintz]

Not sure of the make up, but I have a handful of Discs probably from the sixties in a veriety of sizes
that were taken from main frame computers. In the past we have rotary engraved on them and I have
lasered a few (though it's been a while) They are copper on color and if I recall correctly it sort of bleached the
color out, don't remember offhand if it actually deep etched or not.

Is this the type of thing you are looking to do? Old computer discs? If so I'll dig one out and try it, post a photo
and settings of the results.
Funny you should mention those... had a buddy over this past weekend and sitting on top of my laser was a stack of those platters. Maybe 20 of them, 14-inchers, from the mid-60s. I think each one holds (held?) about 480kB!!!

Compare that to the 2.5" platters sitting here on my desk that hold 250GB.

[Jay Selway]

I wound up using an assist gas and had no trouble cutting through.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRyRIVZjmn5/?taken-by=jumbieindustries

[Keith Downing]

Well, this thread was 6 years old. So I guess technology caught up. LOL

[Bert Kemp]

WOW 6 years later you come back and tell us what you did LOL LOL


I wound up using an assist gas and had no trouble cutting through.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRyRIVZjmn5/?taken-by=jumbieindustries

[John Noell]

Uhh, most of us do not have a 400 watt Kern to do it with. [raw envy]