A method of processing a wafer having a plurality of devices provided in respective areas demarcated on a face side of the wafer by a plurality of projected dicing lines. The method includes coating the face side with a protective film agent and thereafter drying the protective film agent into a protective film covering the face side, applying a laser beam having a wavelength absorbable by the wafer to the wafer along the projected dicing lines on the face side, thereby producing a plurality of laser-processed slots in the wafer, cleaning away the protective film, applying ultraviolet rays to the face side to remove an organic substance deriving from the protective film and remaining on the face side, and covering coverage areas corresponding to the respective devices on the face side with an encapsulating resin.

A substrate comprises glass, sapphire, silicon and/or aluminosilicate, and has at least one recess or through-opening. The at least one recess or through-opening is formed by anisotropic removal of substrate material by etching a portion of the substrate that has been modified by a pulse of laser radiation in a direction of a thickness of the substrate. The modified portion of the substrate extends along a beam axis of the laser radiation. The pulse of laser radiation was applied with a focus extending from a first focal depth positioned past one side of the substrate to a second focal depth located at an opposite side of the substrate.

A method and apparatus for using a laser to form and release an element of an actuator. The method comprising forming an actuator from sheet stock using a laser, where the actuator is three dimensional; releasing an element of the actuator from the sheet stock using the laser; and moving the released part relative to the sheet stock using laser ablation propulsion.

A method for joining an optical crystal to a substrate includes radiating a pulsed laser beam through the optical crystal or through the substrate onto a surface of an intermediate layer between the optical crystal and the substrate, and forming a fusion zone in the intermediate layer between the optical crystal and the substrate by the radiation of the pulsed laser beam, thereby integrally joining the optical crystal and the substrate.

A component treatment processes and treated gas turbine components are disclosed. The gas turbine treatment process includes laser-removing coating from a substrate of a turbine component to form laser-induced plasma, spectroscopically analyzing the laser-induced plasma, and discontinuing the laser-removing in response to the spectroscopic analyzing. The treated gas turbine component includes a laser-affected surface, the laser-affected surface having one or both of modified dimensions and modified microstructure due to being exposed to the laser-removing of the coating. The laser-affected surface has a depth corresponding to the laser-removing being discontinued based upon the spectroscopic analyzing of the laser-induced plasma formed from the laser-removing.

A protective film applying apparatus includes a protective film forming and cleaning unit for forming a protective film on a surface of a wafer and cleaning the protective film away. A coverage state detector detects a coverage state of the protective film, and a controller determines whether or not the protective film has a film thickness falling within a predetermined range. If the controller decides that the thickness of the protective film does not fall in the predetermined range, the controller operates the protective film forming and cleaning unit to clean away the protective film, performs a pretreating process selected depending on the film thickness on the surface, and operates the protective film forming and cleaning unit to form a protective film again on the surface of the wafer.

An optically powered system for rapid, focused heating and melting of water ice. The optical wavelength is chosen to fall in a range where transmissivity through liquid water is higher than through ice. An alternative embodiment of the invention further comprises a length of fiber optic tether between source and output to allow for motion of the melt head. A further embodiment includes probing the ice using various sensing modalities exploiting the presence of the fiber in the ice, searching for biomarkers and characterizing the radiation/light environment for subsurface habitability, including photosynthetic potential and radiation environment as a source for energy.

The herein disclosed manufacturing method of the electrode plate includes a core body exposed area cutting step for cutting a negative electrode core body exposed area with a laser, on which a negative electrode core body is exposed while a negative electrode active material layer is not provided, so as to form a negative electrode tab. Then, regarding the herein disclosed manufacturing method of the electrode plate, the negative electrode core body includes a first surface and a second surface whose surface roughness is smaller than the first surface, and the laser is irradiated to the first surface. By doing this, it is possible to suppress the sputters from sticking to the second surface, and therefore it is possible to decrease the sticking number of the sputters to the negative electrode tab.

Various embodiments of methods and devices for coating stents are described herein.

A method and system for laser pre-cutting a layered material (31) with a laser beam (14) is disclosed. The layered material (31) comprises at least one tensile stress layer (TSL), at least one compression stress layer (CSL1, CSL2), and at least one interface region (IR1, IR2) between the at least one tensile stress layer (TSL) and the at least one compression stress layer (CSL1, CSL2) and is transparent to allow propagation of the laser beam (14) through the layered material (31). The method may comprise setting an optical beam path (8) and a laser characteristic of the laser beam (14) such that an interaction of the laser beam (14) with the layered material (31) generates an elongate damage region (57) in the layered material (31), and, for each of a series of pre-cut positions (X.sub.N−1, X.sub.N, X.sub.N+1) of the layered material (31), pre-cutting the layered material (31) by positioning the layered material (31) and the laser beam (14) with respect to each other and irradiating the laser beam (14) such that the respective elongate damage regions (57) extend across the at least one interface region (IR1, IR2).