Ultrashort Pulse Laser Ablation Applications: Failure Analysis of Ceramic Capacitors

Ultrashort pulse lasers have been proven to be a suitable technique for the preparation of cross-sections in different materials. However, not all the capabilities of such techniques have been explored and optimized. This study presents a fast alternative for failure analysis in multilayer chips capacitors (MLCC) using ultrashort pulse laser ablation. Laser ablation has already been successfully used for failure analysis of such capacitors but this study goes deeper into the time and quality capabilities of laser micromachining. Different cross-sections have been prepared to combine different parameters for optimizing the quality of the cross-section and the processing time. Moreover, samples are processed with a femtosecond laser and with a picosecond laser to compare the final quality of the cross sections and the influence of the pulse duration.