Laser refrigeration equipment suppliers benefit from the rapid development of UV lasers

Nowadays, the laser market is dominated by the fiber lasers which outshine the UV lasers. The wide industrial applications justify the fact that fiber lasers account for the biggest market share. As for UV lasers, they may not be as applicable as fiber lasers in many areas due to its limitations, but it is the particular attribute of 355nm wavelength that sets UV lasers apart from other lasers, making UV lasers become the first choice in certain special applications.   

UV laser is achieved by imposing third harmonic generation technique on infrared light. It is a cold light source and its processing method is called cold processing. With the relatively short wavelength & pulse width and high-quality light beam, UV lasers can achieve more precise micromachining by producing more focal laser spot and keeping the smallest Heat-affecting Zone. High power absorption of UV lasers, especially within the range of UV wavelength and short pulse, allows the materials to vaporize very quickly in order to minimize the Heat-affecting Zone and the carbonization. In addition, the smaller focus point enables UV lasers to be applied in more precise and smaller processing area. Because of the very small Heat-affecting Zone, UV laser processing is categorized as cold processing and it is one of the most outstanding features of UV laser that differentiates from other lasers. UV laser can reach the inside of the materials, for it applies photochemical reaction in the processing. The wavelength of UV laser is shorter than the visible wavelength. However, it is this short wavelength that enables UV lasers to focus more precisely so that UV lasers can perform accurate high-end processing and maintain remarkable positioning precision at the same time.

UV lasers are widely applied in electronics marking, marking on the exterior casing of white home appliances, production date marking of food & medicine, leather, handicraft, fabric cutting, rubber product, glasses material, nameplate, communication equipment and so on. In addition, UV lasers can also be applied in high-end and precise processing areas, such as PCB cutting and ceramics drilling & scribing. It is worth mentioning that EUV is the only laser processing technique that is able to perform on 7nm chip and its existence makes Moore's Law still last until today.

In the past two years, UV laser market has experienced the rapid development. Before 2016, the total domestic shipment of UV lasers was less than 3000 units. However, in 2016, this number increased to more than 6000 units dramatically and in 2017, the number jumped to 9000 units. The rapid development of UV laser market results from the increasing market demand of UV laser high-end processing applications. In addition, some applications which were dominated by YAG lasers and CO2 lasers before are now replaced by UV lasers.

There are quite a lot of domestic companies that produce and sell UV lasers, including Huaray, Inngu, Bellin , Logan, Maiman, RFH, Inno, DZD Photonics and Photonix. Back in 2009, domestic UV laser technique was just at the early stage of development, but now it has become relatively mature. Dozens of UV laser companies have realized the mass-production, which breaks the dominance of foreign brands on UV solid-state lasers and greatly reduces the price of domestic UV lasers. The greatly reduced price leads to the more popularity of UV laser processing, which helps improve the domestic processing level. However, it is worth mentioning that domestic manufacturers are mainly focusing on middle-low power UV lasers ranging from 1W-12W. (Huaray has developed UV lasers of more than 20W.) While for high power UV lasers, domestic manufacturers are still unable to produce, leaving behind of foreign brands.

As for the foreign brands, Spectral-Physics, Coherent, Trumpf, AOC, Powerlase and IPG are the major players in the oversea UV laser markets. Spectral-Physics developed 60W high power UV lasers(M2 <1.3) while Powerlase has DPSS 180W UV lasers(M2<30). As for IPG, its annual sales volume reaches nearly ten million RMB and its fiber laser accounts for more than 50% of the market share of Chinese fiber laser market. Although the sales volume of UV lasers in China accounts for a small portion in its total sales volume comparing with that of fiber lasers, IPG still thinks Chinese UV lasers will have a promising future, which is backed by the increasing demand of consumer electronics processing applications in China. In the past quarter, IPG sold the UV laser of more than 1 million US dollars. IPG hopes to compete with Spectral-Physics which is the subsidiary of MKS on this particular field and even more traditional DPSSL.

In general, although UV lasers are not as popular as fiber lasers, UV lasers still have a promising future in applications and market demands, which can be seen from the dramatic increase in the shipment volume in the past 2 years. UV laser processing is an important power in laser processing market. With the popularization of domestic UV lasers, the competition between domestic brands and foreign brands will enhance, which in turn makes UV lasers more popular in domestic UV laser processing area.

The major technique of UV lasers includes resonant cavity design, frequency multiplication control, inner cavity heat compensation and cooling control. In terms of cooling control, low power UV lasers can be cooled by water cooling equipment and air cooling equipment and most of the manufacturers are apt to water cooling equipment. As for middle-high power UV lasers, they are all equipped with water cooling device. Therefore, the increasing market demand of UV lasers will definitely boost the market demand of water chillers which are special for UV lasers. The stable output of UV lasers requires the internal heat to maintain within a certain range. Therefore, in terms of cooling effect, water cooling is more stable and more reliable than air cooling.

As is known to all, the bigger the water temperature fluctuation of the water chiller is(i.e. temperature control is not accurate), the more light wastage will occur, which will affect the laser processing cost and shorten the lifetime of the lasers. However, the more precise the temperature of the water chiller is, the smaller the water fluctuation will be and the more stable laser output will occur. In addition, the stable water pressure of the water chiller can greatly reduce the pipe load of the lasers and avoid the generation of the bubble. S&A Teyu water chillers with compact design and proper pipeline design can avoid the generation of the bubble and maintain the stable laser output, which helps extend the working life of the lasers and save cost for the users.