APPLICATION OF A PHASE-GRATING BEAMSPLITTER IN LASER-PROCESSING INDIUM-TIN-OXIDE FILMS FOR LIQUID-CRYSTAL PANELS

Array illumination built on a binary phase grating with a green, Q-swi tched, pulse Nd:YAG laser is used for patterning indium-tin-oxide film s into electrodes of liquid crystal display panels. To this end, even- fanout gratings are recursively designed by simulated-annealing algori thm and are realized in quartz glasses by dry-etching. While an array of identically intense beam spots strikes the film, a table supporting the film moves in a direction orthogonal to said spots array at a con stant speed, forming a large group of equi-spaced grooves in the film. A machining yield of 1600 mm/s has been attained using a 32X1 grating .