Laser micromachining in the electronics industry requires that materials are either cut through, partially cut through, scored or marked in a very precise and repeatable fashion. BEST has the capability to precisely machine your PCB assemblies and components for marking, rework or production requirements.

BEST’s LASER tool has a custom-built laser micromachining system with a broad range of capabilities. Its source is a 9.3 micron CO2 laser galvanometer based beam delivery system. Feature sizes down to 150 microns are possible with this system. Materials including plastics, glass, wood, thin films and other organic materials can be processed with this system using AUTOCAD and other file types as the templates.

PCB Marking
Marking serial numbers or other images on PCB
 

Our CO2 lasers can be used to quickly and permanently mark alphanumeric, logos, and bar codes into a variety of materials including PCBs, components including wires and cables and metal housings which have been coated or anodized.

Depaneling

Lasers can be used to depanel individual PCBs from panels.


Cutting

A variety of polyimide shapes can be cut for use in the wave soldering operation. While standard shapes such as dots and squares are used for wave soldering, insulating circuit board against high temperature, BEST can produce custom shapes to customer specifications for these same purposes.

Selective Mask Removal
Defining new pads for rework through selective mask removal on PCB's.

There are instances when a rework has to be performed when solder mask needs to be removed selectively from different portions of the PCB.  Laser methods have the advantage of control, cleanliness and precision over other traditional mask scraping techniques such as mask scraping and micro abrasion.



Cleaning

Lasers can clean conductive pads of many types of materials…. far cleaner and neater than mechanical or chemical methods.


Flex circuit material removal

Flexible circuits can be laser drilled or laser skived to produce through vias, blind vias or to remove dielectric material and expose conductive pads or fingers.

Stripping of insulation on wires and ribbon cable
Selective window pane stripping of ribbon cable

Since the wavelength of the CO2 laser is tuned for plastics and polymers the stripping of insulation from wire or ribbon cable is natural application for this type of laser. The metal wire strands serve to “block” the rays without nicking or marring the surface of the metal strands.

Contact your BEST at (847)797-9250 or see more