Numerical simulation and experimental study of pulsed CO2 laser-induced micro-channels on poly-ether sulfone (PES) polymer

Abstract

TEA CO2 laser pulses were used to create micro-channels on PES samples with various low fluences and scanning speeds in 16–50 J/cm2 and 23–45 µm/s ranges, respectively. Different micro-channels were created with 142–342 µm widths and 85–440 µm depths which has been 3-dimensionally simulated using ABAQUS software based on the finite element method and CIN heat source. The sharp spike (~85 ns FWHM) and long tail (~3.8 µs) parts of the laser pulses were mathematically modeled with individual Gaussian profiles. A good agreement has been found between the simulated and experimental results. Namely, the maximum relative errors of the depth and opening width of the grooves remain below 11.5% and 12.3%, respectively. However, the corresponding mean values of these relative errors do not exceed 4.1% and 7.5%, respectively.