Metal wire cutting by repeated application of low-power laser pulses

Joseph B. Bernstein, Simon S. Cohen, Peter W. Wyatt

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Thermomechanical fatigue, induced by the repeated application of a sufficiently powerful laser pulse, will eventually cause a metallic film to fail. This principle is proposed to cut metal lines for deletive redundancy in microelectronics. Aluminum alloy wires were cut with a series of 5 μs pulses from an argon ion source. The power required to cut 4-μm-wide, 0.75-μm-thick lines was reduced by as much as 87% from that of a single 5 μs laser pulse. By comparison to a single pulse of equal total time, a 70% reduction in power has been realized.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3516-3518
Number of pages3
JournalReview of Scientific Instruments
Volume63
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1992
Externally publishedYes

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