Manufacturing & Prototyping

Laser welding, respectively laser joining, is a method for producing a durable, direct, optically transparent connection between glass fibers and micro-optical functionalized glass elements, such as GRIN lenses, lens arrays etc. In this case, the interlayer adhesive is omitted in the joint, enabling the transmission of significantly higher optical power (no carbonation). The optical properties of this connection are preserved, because neither aging, such as fogging or yellowing, nor shrinkage of the glue leads to a misalignment of the optical components.

The necessary heat insertion required for the joining is induced locally selective with a laser. As a result, fiber arrays with an extremely high packing density, which are limited only by the fiber geometry itself, can be produced.

Laser welding is also applicable to glass capillaries, which is especially interesting in the context of microfluidics (sensor technology and analytics). By combining a glass capillary to a functionalized microfluidic glass chip a particularly low dead-volume and high pressure-resistant connection can be realized.

This cohesive glass/glass compounds, with high optical and mechanical quality, are manufactured on a semi-industrial machine setup of MDI Advanced Processing GmbH. The alignment of the parts to be joined is carried out as required by passive or active alignment with a precision in the micrometer range.

Fiber welding setup of MDI Advanced Processing GmbH