Development of a prediction equation for depth, aspect ratio and trench roughness pertaining to excimer laser ablation of polymer materials

Excimer based laser ablation of micro-fluidic circuits for micro-total analysis systems (μTAS) is an alternative to more expensive techniques of LIGA or micro-moulding. In the interests of developing a rapid prototyping method for direct writing of micro-fluidic circuits in polymer materials the ablation process was characterised using Design of Experiment techniques and a robust full factorial model was developed. Input factors of pulse energy, repetition rate, scan speed and number of passes were considered. Output responses of trench bottom width, sidewall angle, trench depth and trench roughness were measured. From this a prediction equation was created to forecast the output responses prior to machining and to allow the development of a process prior to machining. The accuracy of the prediction equation is discussed for four materials; Polystyrene, Polycarbonate, Non-CQ grade PMMA and CQ grade PMMA. For the four materials studied the response of Polystyrene and Polycarbonate were similar while the two grades of PMMA behave differently.