Market-specific industrialization of excimer lasers for future applications

A number of excimer laser designs have found their way into commercial applications. Historically, these devices have been direct derivatives of designs developed for purely scientific applications and, therefore, have offered operating parameters and characteristics that are typical of the needs of the research community. Rarely have designs been based strictly upon the needs of a particular niche or well-defined market. This is unusual, given the fact that several market applications have been developed around ultraviolet (UV) lasers and excimers in particular. These markets include microfabrication (including photoablation), general materials processing (including photochemistry and surface preparation and modification) and analytical processes (including medical applications). Other markets have been identified, but these represent most of the ongoing work involving UV excimer sources