The new Monaco from Coherent is a femtosecond laser designed to provide flexible performance and high reliability. Specifically, the Monaco is a closed, one-box system that combines a 1,035nm, solid-state oscillator together with an amplifier to yield a 40µJ pulse energy at a repetition rate of 1MHz (40W of average power), in pulse widths of less than 400fs. In order to match its output to the precise requirements of the application, Monaco can easily be operated from single shot to its full repetition rate, and even adjusted to produce pulse widths of 10ps.
The design, materials and manufacturing methods employed for the Monaco have all been optimised to deliver consistently high performance in 24/7, industrial operating environments. For example, all pump and amplifier optical components are contained in a single, sealed laser head which uses active cleaning to maintain output power and lifetime, as well as virtually eliminating the need for routine maintenance. The laser design itself has been iteratively optimised through the use of Highly Accelerated Life Test (HALT) protocols, and each production unit is subjected to Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS) to ensure reliability.
High peak power, femtosecond regime laser pulse widths are well known to produce reduced heat affected zones (HAZ) and a lower ablation threshold as compared to longer pulse widths, thus enabling high precision processing of a wide range of metal, semiconductor and organic materials. The combination of short pulse width and high repetition rate from the Monaco make it well matched for high speed, cost effective cutting of plastic and polymer thin films, silicon wafer scribing, and strengthened glass cutting. Monaco is especially useful for micromachining the inhomogeneous, composite substrates used in microelectronics fabrication. Monaco may also be configured to address ophthalmic applications, including Lasik flap cutting and cataract procedures.