Method for separating a sheet of brittle material
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsSean Matthew Garner, Xinghua Li
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for separating sheet of brittle material having a thickness equal to or less than about 1 mm is disclosed. Once an initial flaw or crack is produced, a full body crack can be propagated across a dimension of the brittle material with a laser beam that is substantially absorbed proximate the surface of the sheet to produce sub-sheets. In some embodiments, only a single pass of the laser beam over a surface of the sheet is necessary to separate the sheet. In other embodiments a plurality of passes may be used. Sub-sheets can be further processed into electronic devices by depositing thin film materials on the sub-piece.
Claims20
A method of separating a thin sheet of brittle material comprising:
- forming a full body crack in a sheet of brittle material comprising a first surface, an opposing second surface and a thickness between the first and second surfaces equal to or less than about 1 mm, the full body crack intersecting the first and second surfaces;
- irradiating the full body crack with a laser beam;
- traversing the laser beam over the first surface along a predetermined path to propagate the full body crack along the predetermined path and separate the sheet of brittle material into at least two sub-sheets of brittle material;
- and
- wherein the full body crack is propagated without forced fluid cooling of the sheet of brittle material.
A method of separating a glass sheet comprising:
- forming an initial flaw in a surface of a glass sheet having a thickness equal to or less than about 1 mm;
- irradiating the initial flaw with a laser beam comprising a wavelength between 9 μm and 11 μm;
- traversing the laser beam over the surface of the glass sheet along a predetermined path in a plurality of cycles between a start point and a stop point to heat the predetermined path without forced fluid cooling;
- and
- wherein a full body crack is propagated along the predetermined path only after the plurality of cycles, and the glass sheet is separated into at least two sub-sheets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.