The “HIPERDIAS Project” and Amplitude

Presentation of HIPERDIAS

HIPERDIAS (HIgh throughPut LasER processing of DIAmond and Silicon) is a European-based project involving 10 partners, including Amplitude. Launched on February 1^st, 2016, this collaborative endeavor will conclude at the beginning of December 2019.

The project’s objective has been to build a 1 kW high power femtosecond laser with a high-repetition rate sub-1ps with the purpose of demonstrating the benefits of using such a device in industries, showing them how a 6-10x increase gain could be realized in their materials processing speed.

Diamonds and silicon were the specific materials studied during the HIPERDIAS project as they are increasingly used  in today’s industries. They’ve also proven to be difficult-to-machine materials when using applications other than femtosecond lasers, rendering them perfect for this study.

 

 

 

Amplitude vision of innovation for the industrial world of tomorrow

This project aligned with our strategy, our vision and our unwavering commitment to innovation and is in sync with Amplitude’s DNA origins. It is also in concert with our goal to provide solutions for both optimizing production lines and producing an end-user product of the highest quality. Via this project, we were able to build a front-end laser with a significantly scaled average output power of 150 W at 1 MHz. Compressed to <500fs pulse duration, this front-end laser allowed the University of Stuttgart to increase the power in the thin disk multipass amplifier to more than 1kW.

Being part of the HIPERDIAS project also created a path for us to improve our high-power femtosecond laser “Tangor” – in particular, by enabling us to enhance various components for increasing power. We also created an original solution for free triggering a femtosecond laser with low timing jitter and excellent pulse energy stability: FemtoTrig®.

This innovative feature revolutionizes femtosecond micro machining because the laser can be precisely triggered, offering nanometric precision on a workpiece, even in acceleration and slow-down phases of axes and scanners. Thanks to this new characteristic, industries will avoid dead times and substantially increase both their processing speed and their productivity.

The results obtained from the HIPERDIAS project have proven invaluable and will assist us in answering and responding to all the challenges of power and production in the foreseeable future, and for many years to come.

For more information, you can watch the official video of Amplitude on our participation to the HIPERDIAS project.