A welding or cladding apparatus in which one or more energy beam emitters are used to generate a wide beam spot transverse to a welding or cladding path, and one or more wide feeders feed wire to the spot to create a wide welding or cladding puddle.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes modifying a first laser beam from a first laser to form a first linear-shaped laser beam and modifying a second laser beam from a second laser to form a second linear-shaped laser beam. The method further includes overlaying the first linear-shaped laser beam and the second linear-shaped laser beam to form an overlayed linear-shaped laser beam, wherein the overlayed linear-shaped laser beam has a width and a length where the length is ten times or more as large as the width. The method also includes scanning a semiconductor film formed over a substrate with the overlayed linear-shaped laser beam to increase crystallinity of the semiconductor film, and patterning the semiconductor film to form a semiconductor layer which includes a channel formation region of a transistor.

If an optical path length of an optical system is reduced and a length of a laser light on an irradiation surface is increased, there occurs curvature of field which is a phenomenon that a convergent position deviates depending on an incident angle or incident position of a laser light with respect to a lens. To avoid this phenomenon, an optical element having a negative power such as a concave lens or a concave cylindrical lens is inserted to regulate the optical path length of the laser light and a convergent position is made coincident with a irradiation surface to form an image on the irradiation surface.

A system for and a method of processing a transparent material, such as glass, using an adjustable laser beam line focus are disclosed. The system for processing a transparent material includes a laser source operable to emit a pulsed laser beam, and an optical assembly (6) disposed within an optical path of the pulsed laser beam. The optical assembly (6) is configured to transform the pulsed laser beam into a laser beam focal line having an adjustable length and an adjustable diameter. At least a portion of the laser beam focal line is operable to be positioned within a bulk of the transparent material such that the laser beam focal line produces a material modification along the laser beam focal line. Method of laser processing a transparent material by adjusting at least one of the length of the laser beam focal line and the diameter of the laser beam focal line is also disclosed.

Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for welding a workpiece comprising the steps of: making a first weld at a first position on said workpiece with a high energy beam, deflecting the high energy beam with at least one deflection lens for making a second weld at a second position on said workpiece, focusing the high energy beam on said workpiece with at least one focusing lens, shaping the high energy beam on said workpiece with at least one astigmatism lens so that the shape of the high energy beam on said workpiece is longer in a direction parallel to a deflection direction of said high energy beam than in a direction perpendicular to said deflection direction of said high energy beam. The invention is also related to the use of an astigmatism lens and to a method for forming a three dimensional article.

A laser annealing device of the present invention includes a stage on which a heating object is placed, a first laser element which emits first continuous laser light, a first optical system which leads the first continuous laser light to the heating object to form a first application region on the heating object, a second laser element which emits second continuous laser light having a wavelength shorter than that of the first continuous laser light, a second optical system which leads the second continuous laser light to the heating object to form a second application region on the heating object, and a system controller which executes scanning with the first application region and the second application region so that each portion of the heating object is scanned with at least part of the first application region before being scanned with the second application region.

The present invention relates to a method for laser-based machining of a planar, crystalline substrate in order to separate the substrate into a plurality of parts, in which the laser beam of a laser is directed, for machining the substrate, onto the latter, in which, with an optical arrangement positioned in the beam path of the laser, a laser beam focal surface which is expanded, viewed both along the beam direction and viewed in precisely a first direction perpendicular to the beam direction, but is not expanded in a second direction which is both perpendicular to the first direction and to the beam direction, is formed from the laser beam radiated onto said arrangement on the beam output side of the optical arrangement, the substrate being positioned relative to the laser beam focal surface such that the laser beam focal surface in the interior of the substrate, along an expanded surface portion of the substrate material, produces an induced absorption by means of which crack formations in the substrate material induced along this expanded surface portion are effected.

Aspects described herein relate to additive manufacturing systems and related methods. An additive manufacturing system may include two or more laser energy sources and associated optical fibers. An optics assembly may be constructed and arranged to form a rectangular laser energy pixel associated with each laser energy source. Each pixel may have a substantially uniform power density, and the pixels may be arranged to form a linear array of laser energy pixels on a build surface with no spacing between the pixels. Exposure of a portion of a layer of material on the build surface to the linear array of laser energy pixels may melt the portion of the layer.

A method, article of manufacture, and system for joining different materials is described. In a principal embodiment, two articles, for example different metals, are placed in proximity to one another with an interfacial area. One article is heated using a laser that is scanned across from a point remote from the interface to a point at or just short of the interface. In embodiments, the interfacial bond region is characterized by a homogenous mixed phase region with very low to substantially no brittle intermetallics.

An optical system for forming a final image of a non-circular light source on a workpiece with a desired non-circular cross-section and desired size B includes a plurality of spaced lenses. The plurality of lenses are arranged with spaced upstream and downstream lenses which are configured to transmit the beam emitted by the light source. The optical system is configured with an F-theta lens spaced downstream from the downstream lens and converging the beam incident thereon so that the beam has a final waist. The F-theta and downstream lenses are spaced apart so that $\frac{F4}{\mathrm{Fth}}=\frac{A}{B},$
wherein F4 a positive focal length of the downstream lens, Fth is the negative focus of the F-theta lens, B is the desired size of the final image, and A is a size of a preliminary noncircular image of the source different from the desired size B.