A laser system includes a controller, a laser source, a laser scanner, and a laser containment apparatus. The laser containment apparatus includes a mounting structure for the laser scanner, a shroud assembly coupled to the mounting structure, and a seal interface coupled to the shroud assembly at an opposite end from the laser scanner. The shroud assembly surrounds a working volume of the laser scanner and includes a vacuum port connected to a vacuum source and a purge port that guides purge gas from a purge gas source toward the laser scanner. A distal end of the seal interface is formed of a pliable material that compresses to seal the shroud assembly to a target surface of a workpiece upon establishment of a negative pressure differential between a vacuum pressure inside the shroud assembly and ambient atmospheric pressure.

A detection mechanism of a detection device includes a pulsed laser oscillator that emits a pulsed laser beam; an f? lens facing a workpiece held by a chuck table; a thermal excitation section that applies the pulsed laser beam emitted from the pulsed laser oscillator to an upper surface of a wafer through the f? lens and generates an ultrasonic wave propagated in a spherical form by thermal excitation; and an image forming section that forms an image by capturing a reflected laser beam influenced by vibration of the ultrasonic wave generated by the thermal excitation section, propagated through the inside of the workpiece, reflected by a lower surface of the workpiece, and returned to the upper surface of the workpiece, by an aperture synthesis method.

A method of forming a plurality of semiconductor devices includes applying a tape material to a back side of a semiconductor device having a silicon layer on the back side and a circuitry layer on the front side, lasing with an infrared laser the silicon layer through the tape material, lasing with a second laser the circuitry layer, and expanding the tape material for form a plurality of semiconductor devices. The second layer may be an ultraviolet laser. The lasers may be irradiated in a pattern on the bottom side and the top side. The second layer may form a groove in the circuitry layer that does not penetrate the silicon layer. The infrared laser may cleave a portion of the silicon lattice of the silicon layer. A coating may be applied to the circuitry layer prior to being irradiated with the second laser.

A laser processing apparatus includes a light source which outputs a laser light, and a waveform control unit which controls a pulse waveform of the laser light irradiating the workpiece, in which the pulse waveform of the laser light controlled by the waveform control unit includes a main pulse and a foot pulse temporally preceding the main pulse, and a peak intensity of the foot pulse is smaller than a peak intensity of the main pulse, and a peak position of the main pulse is positioned in a retention time period of plasma generated due to an incidence of the foot pulse on the workpiece.

A laser processing method for performing groove processing by applying to a workpiece a laser beam of such a wavelength as to be absorbed in the workpiece includes: a protective member disposing step of disposing a protective member on an upper surface of the workpiece; a liquid layer forming step of forming a liquid layer on the upper surface of the workpiece; a laser beam applying step of applying the laser beam through the liquid layer to subject the upper surface of the workpiece to groove processing and to produce minute bubbles; and a debris removing step of removing debris from inside of grooves by rupture of the bubbles.

The liquid-assisted micromachining methods include methods of processing a substrate made of a transparent dielectric material. A working surface of the substrate is placed in contact with a liquid-assist medium that comprises fluorine. A focused pulsed laser beam is directed through a first substrate surface and through the opposite working surface to form a focus spot in the liquid-assist medium. The focus spot is then moved over a motion path from its initial position in the liquid-assist medium through the substrate body in the general direction from the working surface to the first surface to create a modification of the transparent dielectric material that defines in the body a core portion. The core portion is removed to form the substrate feature, which can be a through or closed fiber hole that supports one or more optical fibers. Optical components formed using the processed substrate are also disclosed.

A method for forming features in transparent dielectric materials is described. The method includes laser micromachining of a transparent dielectric material. The transparent dielectric material is in contact with a liquid containing a fluorinated compound. Features formed by the method have low surface roughness and highly uniform linear dimensions.

A wafer processing method includes a modified layer forming step of forming a modified layer along a planned dividing line within a wafer and a dividing step of dividing the wafer along the planned dividing line with the modified layer as a starting point by applying a force to the wafer. The modified layer forming step includes a forward path modified layer forming step, a backward path modified layer forming step, and a phase shift mask reversing step of reversing a phase shift mask so as to reverse phase distribution of a laser beam applied to the wafer in an X-axis direction after the forward path modified layer forming step and before the backward path modified layer forming step, or after the backward path modified layer forming step and before the forward path modified layer forming step.

A method for processing a transparent workpiece that includes directing a laser beam output by a beam source onto a phase-adjustment device such that the laser beam downstream the phase-adjustment device is an Airy beam and directing the Airy beam onto a surface of the transparent workpiece. The Airy beam forms an Airy beam focal region in the transparent workpiece, the Airy beam of the Airy beam focal region having a maximum intensity of 100 TW/cm.sup.2 or less, the Airy beam of the Airy beam focal region induces absorption in the transparent workpiece, the induced absorption producing a curved defect in the transparent workpiece.

The pressure-sensitive adhesive film according to the present invention comprises a resin film as a substrate and a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer provided at least on a face of the resin film. The resin film has a multi-layer constitution consisting of at least two layers. The resin film has a laser beam reflectance of 5% or higher, but 40% or lower in a wavelength range of 1000 nm to 1100 nm, and has a laser beam transmittance of 5% or lower in the said wavelength range.