A review of thirty-five years of laser trimming with a look to the future

As devices and circuits become smaller and more complex, constant innovation is required from capital equipment suppliers. This is true in all of the ever-expanding applications of electronics including computers, telecommunications equipment, automobiles, and instruments. Lasers, usually focused down to micrometer-sized spots of energy, have become the fundamental tool for physically micromachining or exposing a wide variety of materials. Applications now range from printed circuit boards and hybrid circuits down to semiconductor devices. The following paper describes how computer-controlled work-cells based around the ubiquitous laser or laser systems, as they are called in the electronics industry, have changed the way all electronics products are manufactured.