Simulation and Realization of a Focus Shifting Unit using a Tunable Lens for 3D Laser Material Processing

3D laser microprocessing using current market available technologies reveals itself to be a cost intensive and complex undertaking which is mostly due to the control architecture and use of moving components. Recent market appearance of electronically tunable lenses exhibiting NIR transmission, large aperture, high damage threshold and fast response times are available for laser based applications. Hence, enabling usage in the field of laser microprocessing. This paper thus introduces the functional principle of electrically tunable lenses, setup arrangement for 3D laser microprocessing, computational simulation of system parameters and comparison with experimental results.