Real Time Monitoring of High Power Laser Microwelding of Medical Devices
Critical for medical device microwelding that requires a focused spot of light with a well-defined, narrow, and reproducible bandwidth and intensity profile, the Ophir Focal Spot Analyzer from MKS Instruments is so accurate that the distance to the camera array is NIST-traceable.
Posted: January 23, 2018
MKS Instruments, Inc. (MKSI; Andover, MA) offers their Ophir® Focal Spot Analyzer, a laser beam monitoring system that measures the focus spot and power of high power lasers in real time. The analyzer measures focal spot size down to 35 µm and laser power from <1 watt to 400 watts for wavelengths from 266 nm to 1,100 nm. Designed for laser applications with shorter working distances, the system monitors power density distribution of the focal spot and shifts in the focal plane location, and provides a well understood location of the laser caustic. It is so accurate that the distance to the camera array is NIST-traceable. This is critical for applications that require a focused spot of light with a well-defined, narrow, and reproducible bandwidth and intensity profile, including medical device manufacturing and microwelding.
“Focusing a laser beam down to a small spot produces higher beam intensities and higher optical efficiencies,” stated Gary Wagner, the general manager of Ophir Photonics, U.S. (North Logan, UT). “This is especially important in such applications as medical device manufacturing, where the laser beam is focused to a spot size of a few thousandths of an inch diameter. This system allows the user to accurately know where they are measuring the laser spot and what the 2D distribution is at the measurement plane, which may or may not be at focus.”
The analyzer includes a high-resolution camera – the SP928 CCD Beam Profiling Camera or the LT665 Large Array Beam Profiling Camera – an LBS-300s beam attenuator system with two beam splitters for polarization-neutral attenuation, BeamGage® beam profiling software, and a calibration certificate. The LBS-300s beam attenuator allows users to control and adjust laser beam output power reaching the camera. Approximately 99 percent of the beam is transmitted through each beam sampler with 0.01 percent passed on to the camera. The beam sampler provides an image that is polarization insensitive, which maintains the polarization components of the original beam.
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