With the rapid growth of electric vehicle technology leading to rising demand for high-value automotive semiconductors, the development of equipment that processes core automotive semiconductor components using both lasers and hydraulic pressure—the first of its kind in Korea—is raising expectations that it will help reduce reliance on imports and achieve cost savings.

The research team led by Principal Researcher Sang-hoon Ahn of the Optical Application Equipment Research Laboratory at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM, President Sang-jin Park), under the Ministry of Science and ICT, announced on the 8th that they have succeeded in developing a laser-waterjet hybrid processing machine capable of freely processing high-strength materials that are difficult to process.

Automotive semiconductors are key components that control electronic equipment, engines, and more. Electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles require more electrical devices than conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, leading to an increase in the number of semiconductors used. With the newly developed laser-waterjet fusion processing machine, SiC, which is attracting attention as a semiconductor substrate for automobiles but is difficult to process due to its high hardness and previously relied on imported machines, can now be freely processed domestically.

The research team succeeded in developing the first domestic 200W green nanosecond laser, which had previously relied on foreign imports, and also developed a stable optical system capable of precisely maintaining the processing position for nine times longer than foreign products during product processing.

In addition, the research team designed the equipment so that high-pressure water produced by a high-pressure pump is passed through a water jet nozzle to form a laminar flow of more than 50 mm in length inside the processing device, and then a laser beam is focused to one point inside the laminar flow to process the product with a laser along the water jet stream.

Looking at existing laser processing equipment, nanosecond laser processing equipment used for splitting semiconductor wafers offers fast processing speeds but struggles with precise processing, while ultrashort laser processing equipment used for cutting display glass enables precise processing but has the disadvantage of slow processing speeds.

The newly developed laser-waterjet fusion processing machine can process materials precisely at high speeds, and can maintain a clean working environment by using a waterjet to expel large amounts of fine dust and smoke that were previously generated during laser processing. In addition, this fusion processing machine has the advantage of being 20% cheaper than imported fusion processing machines.

"I am pleased that we have succeeded in developing the nation's first laser fusion processing machine, contributing to strengthening the technological competitiveness of Korea's future semiconductor equipment industry," said Ahn Sang-hoon, a principal researcher at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM). "I expect that this development will help secure competitiveness in the automotive semiconductor industry and contribute to expanding the market share of Korean companies."

Meanwhile, this research was conducted with support from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's 'High-Power Laser Fusion Machining Machine for Machining High-Strength Difficult-to-Machine Materials' project.