Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier. (2017-2018 à 2018-2019)

Laser marking/engraving/etching (the term is represented by "laser marking" thereafter) uses a laser beamx000D
across the surface of a material to alter the property (e.g., color), or remove the materials to a certain depthx000D
through vaporization/melting, such as to form desired patterns. It has been widely used in fabrication andx000D
consumer product industries. A laser marking system consists of the laser source (e.g., CO2 laser, fiber laser,x000D
Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO laser), the laser beam vector scanning mechanism and controlling software. The laserx000D
beam scanning mechanism is traditionally comprised of two galvanometer mirrors or two servo/stepper motorx000D
driven mirrors. It also includes other components such as encoders, driving cards, heatsinks and a powerx000D
supplier. The total size is 3 ~ 4 liters. The cost is about USD 2500, which is ~ 50% of the total laser marking.x000D
Lumicision Inc. is a GTA company (located in Richmond Hill) and specializes in manufacturing laserx000D
machining machines and providing laser marking service. After the company entered this market for a fewx000D
years, they realized the traditional laser scanning mechanism in their laser marking machines is too bulky andx000D
too expensive. The company has been long looking for an alternative solution of much lower cost and smallerx000D
size to the traditional laser scanning mechanism in their laser marking machines.x000D
This application proposes a solution to address the above problem, i.e., using micromirrors to vector scan thex000D
laser beam to replace the traditional laser scanning mechanism in the laser marking machine. The micromirrorx000D
has much smaller/simpler structure and driving circuit than traditional galvanometer or servo/stepper motorsx000D
driven mirrors because the micromirror's mass is very small, which requires every little power to drive withoutx000D
needing any heatsink. The micromirror based laser beam scanning mechanism is about 0.05 liter or less, whichx000D
is ~ 50 times smaller than that of the traditional design. In addition, micromirrors are suitable for massx000D
fabrication, i.e., hundreds or thousands are fabricated on one wafer at the same time, which leads to very lowx000D
unit mirror price, e.g., 10s dollars. The cost including the micromirror and the driving/control circuit is one