INNOSLAB lasers represent a new laser class which is suitable for a large variety of applications in different sectors of industry and research. With his features INNOSLAB lasers enable a variety of challenging applications with added value such micro-processing of glass, scribing, edge deletion, high throughput thin film structuring, and pumping of dye lasers.

The technological impact of the innovation includes

• improving existing manufacturing processes
• enabling new production processes and new types of products
• precision processing with small heat affected zones and high reproducibility
• high productivity in micro-processing
• new design of drilled holes by changing the cross-sections along the hole
• depth
• green processing with high energy efficiency
• efficient pumping sources for dye lasers, OPO and OPA sources at high
• repetition rates

The major sectors of industry which are profiting from the INNOSLAB lasers are:

• Photovoltaic, e.g. scribing, drilling and cutting of Si-wafer, ablation of conduction or dielectric layers of thin film solar and crystalline Si solar cells
• Display, e.g. structuring of conduction layer, sequential lateral crystallization of Si
• Glass industry, e.g. micro drilling and high throughput subsurface engraving
• Scientific, e.g. pumping of dye laser, pumping of OPO and Ti:Saphire laser, particle imaging velocimetry
• Electronics industry, e.g. drilling and cutting of printed circuit boards
• Tool making and mechanical engineering, e.g. 3D rapid prototyping via ablation

Prof. Reinhart Poprawe, vice-president of the association Arbeitskreis Lasertechnik AKL e.V. and director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, welcomed in Aachen´s town hall the audience and especially the teams of the 3 finalists and the 10 members of the international jury. In his laudatio Dr. Paul Hilton from The Welding Institute TWI Cambridge and speaker of the jury members pointed out the dedicated work of all 3 finalist´s and the outstanding innovations of the project teams in the field of laser technology. Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Prof. e. h. mult. Dr. h. c. mult. Hans-Jörg Bullinger, president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and dinner speaker of the awarding ceremony, conferred the 1st prize of the Innovation Award Laser Technology 2010 provided with 10 000 Euro prize money to Dr. Keming Du and his team of the EdgeWave GmbH, Würselen, Germany for the development of Q-switched INNOSLAB lasers for high quality micro-processing. The prize winner Dr. Du has been furthermore awarded the title of »AKL Fellow« and »ELI Fellow«. The trophy for the prize winner and the certificates for Dr. Du and the other project management team members Dr. Claus-Rüdiger Haas, Dipl.-Ing. Alexander Schell, and Dr. Dailjun Li were handed over by Dipl.-Ing. Ulrich Berners, president of the Arbeitskreis Lasertechnik AKL e.V. and Dr. Stefan Kaierle, president of the European Laser Institute ELI.

In 2002, EdgeWave brought its first air-cooled and stand-alone INNOSLAB lasers to the market. Starting with 20 W output, lasers were up-scaled and new innovations were added. Several product families were created and in 2006 the first system with 200 W average power made it to the market. In 2010 a first high power ps laser with an average power of 400 W and a pulse energy up to 800 µJ was demonstrated.

The INNOSLAB technology is based on advanced diode-pumped solid state laser technology. The special geometry enables a compact resonator with excellent stability and low thermal lensing effects. These advantages make the INNOSLAB systems particularly well suited for high power and pulsed lasers. They allow for short pulses with high peak powers, while maintaining high beam quality at high average power. Another advantage is the flexibility in beam profile: the laser resonator supports beam shaping from circular, through line shaped one dimensional top-hat, to two dimensional top-hat with rectangular cross section.

The robustness on the one hand and the flexible design on the other enable a large number of applications. Today, EdgeWave lasers are applied in micro-processing of glass, scribing, edge deletion, high throughput thin film structuring, and pumping of dye lasers.

Although developed to be a workhorses, INNOSLAB lasers achieved a number of world records for pulsed lasers. The outstanding technological achievements of EdgeWave were awarded with the 1rst prize of the “INNOVATION AWARD LASER TECHNOLOGY 2010″ at the International Laser Congress Aachen AKL´10.

The most recent innovation from EdgeWave are the PX-series and QX-series. With 100 W and 400 W of average power and 10 ps pulse duration from a very compact box it will be a dedicated workhorse for micro machining applications. You may see those laser system at the LASER World of Photonics on the EdgeWave booth C1.230.