Laser welding is a welding method that uses a high-energy-density laser beam as a heat source, that is, laser radiation heats the surface of the workpiece, and the surface heat diffuses into the interior through heat conduction to melt the workpiece and form a specific molten pool. The laser beam passes through the upper layer of light-transmitting material, and then is absorbed by the lower layer material, and the laser energy is absorbed and converted into heat energy, since the two layers of materials are pressed together. Thermal energy is conducted from the absorbing layer to the light-transmitting layer, causing the two layers of material to melt and bond.

It can be seen that the energy of the laser beam must be absorbed by the plastic to achieve a good welding effect, so the CO2 laser is generally used for plastic laser welding. Also, not all plastics can be welded with laser welding. Plastics can be divided into thermoset and thermoplastic. Among them, thermosetting plastics are not reproducible and cannot be welded, while thermoplastics will melt after reheating (you can use heating and cooling to make them reversible), which is a so-called physical change, so it has weldability.

Compared with other welding methods, laser welding has the characteristics of high speed and good effect. way to weld complex parts, such as plastics containing circuit boards. Industries such as automotive, medical, consumer electronics, and food are ideal application areas for laser welding.

1. Automotive industry

Plastic laser welding machines are widely used in the automotive industry, such as automatic door locks, engine sensors, cab racks, fuel nozzles, gear shift racks, etc. Some models have also used laser welding for taillights.

2. Medical field

Plastic laser welding machines can be used to manufacture liquid storage tanks, liquid filtering equipment, hose connectors, ostomy bags, hearing aids, implants, microfluidic devices for analysis, and more.

3. Packaging industry

For example, the packaging of advanced industrial products, using plastic film welding technology, can obtain plastic packaging with high processing speed, reliable seams and beautiful appearance. Laser welding connection of plastic outer packaging material. Plastic materials are thermoplastics and elastomers.

Laser welding plastics has the comprehensive advantages of low cost, no pollution, high speed, convenient processing, easy realization of precise numerical control, wide application range of raw materials, good bonding and manufacturability. The application of plastic laser welding will become more and more extensive, and the technology will become more and more mature. In order to meet the growing demand for transparent plastic products in the industrial, medical and scientific research markets, Nanjing Hecho Technology provides various customized High-energy Transmission Optical Fiber for the laser plastic welding industry, with high transmittance, good uniformity, and high-energy transmission. Advantages, widely praised by the market.

 According to a recent report by Congic Business Intelligence, the global market for medical laser fibers is expected to grow significantly at a compound annual growth rate of 6.9% from 2023 to 2030. This growth is attributed to the increasing popularity of minimally invasive surgeries worldwide.

China's laser industry is developing rapidly and has obvious competitive advantages. The proportion of the global laser market has also continued to increase. In 2020, the scale of China's laser market will reach US$10.91 billion, accounting for 66.12% of the global laser market. It is expected to reach $14.74 billion in 2022.

Due to the excellent performance and strong applicability of fiber lasers, the market share has increased rapidly in the past decade. The market accounts for more than half of the market, and it has a clear leading position compared to solid-state lasers, gas lasers, and semiconductor lasers. The four major development trends are as follows:

Core components such as semiconductor laser chips are gradually being localized

Taking fiber lasers as an example, the pump source of high-power fiber lasers is the main application field of semiconductor lasers, and high-power semiconductor laser chips and modules are important components of fiber lasers. In recent years, China's fiber laser industry has been in a stage of rapid growth, and the degree of localization has increased year by year. In terms of market penetration rate, in the low-power fiber laser market, the domestic laser market share is as high as 99.01%; in the medium-power fiber laser market, the domestic laser penetration rate has maintained a level of more than 50% in recent years; the localization of high-power fiber lasers The process is also gradually advancing, reaching a penetration rate of 55.56%. However, core components such as high-power semiconductor laser chips still rely on imports. The upstream components of lasers with semiconductor laser chips as the core are gradually being localized. On the one hand, the market scale of domestic upstream components of lasers is increased. The localization of core components can improve the ability of domestic laser manufacturers to participate in international competition.

Hecho specializing in design and manufacture Customized Laser Fiber for over 18 years, which can supply the bare Fiber Optic Cables, Fiber Optic Bundles which are widely used in Laser Fiber application, such as LDI (Laser Direct Imaging), Plastic Laser Welding, and Medical application.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about silicon wafers. Here we analyze it from several perspectives:

First of all, in terms of demand, thanks to the rise of new applications such as 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and electric vehicles, the demand for semiconductors has increased significantly, and the shortage of chips and the expansion of foundry production have continued to benefit, and the industry market is hot. According to the statistics of the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI), the global semiconductor silicon wafer shipment area will continue to grow until 2024, and show a new high performance year by year.

The huge increase in demand for silicon wafers is related to the large-scale expansion of global wafer factories in recent years. According to SEMI statistics, the number of global semiconductor factories in 2019 was 957, and it is expected to grow to 1,011 in 2022. The monthly production capacity of the factory often jumps from 30,000 to 50,000 pieces. Silicon wafers have become an indispensable strategic material, and their usage will inevitably rise in a straight line.

On the other hand, assessed from the supply side, SEMI expects global silicon wafer shipments to hit a record high year by year in the next three years. Silicon wafer manufacturers at home and abroad are unanimously optimistic about the market. After all, the foundry capacity is full, and it is undoubtedly the strongest and powerful backing for the silicon wafer industry, which is the most critical upstream raw material.

The Optical Fiber Bundles and Light Sources produced by Hecho Technology are widely used in the semiconductor industry, such as wafer inspection, cutting, Laser Direct Imaging, Automatic Optical Inspection and other fields. Different needs of different customers. 

With the gradual localization of upstream core optoelectronic components, the application cost of lasers will gradually decrease, and lasers will penetrate deeper into many industries. On the one hand, for China, laser processing also fits into the ten major application areas of China's manufacturing industry. It is expected that the application areas of laser processing will be further expanded in the future, and the market scale will be further expanded. On the other hand, with the continuous popularization and development of technologies such as unmanned driving, advanced assisted driving systems, service robots, and 3D sensing, more applications in automobiles, artificial intelligence, consumer electronics, face recognition, optical communication and defense research and many other fields. As the core device or component of the above-mentioned laser applications, semiconductor lasers will also gain space for rapid development.

Higher power, better beam quality, shorter wavelengths and faster frequencies

In the field of industrial lasers, fiber lasers have made tremendous progress since their inception in terms of output power, beam quality, and brightness. However, higher power can increase the processing speed, optimize the processing quality, expand the processing field to heavy industry manufacturing, and be used in cutting, welding, surface Processing, etc., the requirements for power indicators of fiber lasers continue to increase. Corresponding device manufacturers need to continuously improve the performance of core devices (such as high-power semiconductor laser chips and gain fibers), and the improvement of fiber laser power also requires advanced laser modulation technologies such as beam combining and power synthesis, which will give high-power semiconductor lasers. Chip manufacturers bring new requirements and challenges. In addition, the development of shorter wavelengths, more wavelengths, and faster (ultrafast) lasers is also an important direction, which is mainly used in integrated circuit chips, displays, consumer electronics, aerospace and other precision micromachining, as well as life sciences, medical, transmission, etc. In the fields of sense and other fields, new requirements are also put forward for semiconductor laser chips.

Demand for optoelectronic components for high-power lasers continues to grow

The R&D and industrialization of high-power fiber lasers is the result of the coordinated progress of the industry chain, which requires the support of core optoelectronic components such as pump sources, isolators, and beam combiners. The basic and key components of production, the continuous expansion of the high-power fiber laser market has also driven the market demand for upstream high-power semiconductor laser chips and other core components. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of the domestic fiber laser technology level, the realization of import substitution has become an inevitable trend, and the global laser market share will continue to increase, bringing huge opportunities for local optoelectronic component manufacturers with outstanding strength.

Nanjing Hecho Technology provides a variety of customized services for non-standard high-energy transmission optical fibers, including quartz optical fibers and glass optical fibers, which can transmit high-power lasers in the ultraviolet to infrared bands. The products are widely used in LDI Laser Direct Imaging, Plastic Laser Welding, biochemical analysis and other fields. Customized services flexibly meet the differentiated needs of different customers.

Market research firm IC Insights released an analysis of R&D trends in its latest 2022 McClean Report quarterly update, saying that about 56% of global semiconductor industry R&D spending in 2021 will come from companies headquartered in the Americas region, These companies are largely based in the United States, with a large percentage coming from Intel (19%).

As shown in the chart below, semiconductor R&D spending by companies in the Asia-Pacific region (including foundries, fabless and IDM) will exceed 29% of the global total in 2021, followed by European companies with about 8% and Japan with nearly 7%. In 2011, chip suppliers in the Americas accounted for about 55 percent of global semiconductor R&D spending, compared with 18 percent in the Asia-Pacific region (including China).

Nanjing Hecho Technology has strong optical fiber R&D and production capabilities, and can provide customized services for various Optical Fiber Bundles for different industries and usage needs to flexibly meet the differentiated needs of different customers. In addition, high-brightness LED Light Sources and Halogen Light Sources for use with optical fibers are available.

According to research by TrendForce, the shipment volume of smartphone camera modules in 2022 will be raised to 5.02 billion units, an annual increase of 5%. Since the price-performance ratio of the whole machine is the main basis for consumers to buy, the three-lens design is still the mainstream design this year, and it is estimated that it will account for more than 40% of the overall shipment.

By combining a high-pixel main lens with two low-pixel functional lenses, the mobile phone can maintain a three-lens design and take into account the hardware cost. This is also the main reason for the development of mid-to-low-end products towards three-lens or even four-lens designs.

The growth momentum of mobile phone camera module shipments in 2022 is mainly due to the increase in the number of low-pixel lenses driven by the three-lens design. Although the high-pixel main lens with better specifications can enable brand manufacturers to provide better mobile phone shooting performance, due to Pixel specifications have not continued to climb to a higher level, and are still maintained at around 50 million pixels, which has caused demand to stagnate slightly.

Hecho Technology provides Fiber Optic Illuminator and optical fiber customization services for lens inspection systems, using high-brightness warm-color LEDs, or customized infrared 850nm, 940nm LED light sources, and high transmission rate Flexible Fiber Optic Light Guides, flexibly meet the needs of MTF industry inspection applications.

We look forward to your visit and guidance at Booth 090, Hall D, Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center. During the exhibition, you can have an on-site understanding of our LDI laser imaging fiber, plastic welding laser fiber, holmium laser fiber, specialty fibers of various specifications, as well as our self-developed light sources and xenon light sources.

(CIOE2023) On September 6-8,2023, Nanjing Qingzhao Technology will participate in the 24th China International Optoelectronics Expo (CIOE2023) in Shenzhen. Welcome friends to visit.

Pavilion: Hall 2

Booth number: 2D090