Research and Development

The R&D team of Kirana is composed by young researchers trained at universities and research centers of excellence. It is constantly engaged in the development of new laser micromachining processes with high added value, evaluating their feasibility and studying the possible fields for their application. Moreover, the team plays a central role in the identification and characterization of the most appropriate laser micromachining process to be applied in order to fulfill the customer requirement, by considering the application of the specimen thus machined. The R&D team has at his disposal one of the most advanced technologies in the field of ultra-short pulse lasers, the femtosecond laser (FemtoLab). This technology, through the phenomenon of the so called “cold ablation”, allows removing of material without spreading the heat in the surrounding zone, thus avoiding thermal effects and achieving extreme precision in the micro-processes, opening up new development scenarios. The working station, in which the femtosecond laser source is included, is also equipped with an optical chain that accounts for the transport and management of the beam, a high-performance micrometric handling system, a vision system for the constant monitoring of the sample alignment and in the end, auxiliary systems specific for the process to be performed. This work station set up results to be totally flexible always maintaining high performances. It allows to carry out micro-machining processes by reaching high geometrical characteristics and at the same time ensuring high precision and quality of the machined sample (FemtoLab microachining). In addition, the laboratory is equipped with the latest instrumentation (optical microscopy with high magnification, white light profilometer, SEM) in order to characterize at the micro-scale the geometrical properties of the machined samples.