Photonics Assembly Laser Cleaning Solutions

Unlike traditional mechanical or chemical cleaning techniques, laser cleaning uses controlled pulses of laser to selectively target contaminants—such as epoxy residues, dust, particles, oxidation layers, and organic films—while leaving the underlying substrate fully intact. This makes it ideal for sensitive applications in semiconductor manufacturing, photonic integrated circuits (PICs), optical assemblies, and high-value microelectronic components.

Engineered for precision, repeatability, and seamless integration into production environments, Femtum’s laser cleaning solutions deliver the reliability that today’s advanced manufacturing demands. Whether used for wafer-level cleaning, fiber-to-chip coupling preparation or bonding pad conditioning, our laser cleaning solution provides a smarter, and more controlled approach to contamination removal.

What Is Laser Cleaning ?

Laser cleaning is a non-contact surface treatment process that uses short laser pulses to remove contaminants such as organic residues, particles, oxides, or thin films from a material surface. The laser energy is selectively absorbed by the contamination layer, causing it to evaporate or detach while leaving the underlying substrate intact.

Because the process is highly localized and precisely controlled, laser cleaning enables micron-scale precision with minimal heat diffusion or mechanical stress.

Why Cleaning ?

Laser cleaning is increasingly adopted in semiconductor and photonic manufacturing because it offers a precise, controllable, and contamination-free method to remove residues without damaging sensitive components.

Step 1 — Image Acquisition of the Components

The system captures a high-resolution image of the component or assembly surface.
This imaging step establishes the exact geometry of the part, the region of interest as well as the baseline cleanliness state.

Step 2 — Detection & Localization of Contaminants

Our software identifies contaminants such as dust particles, grease, organic residues, or IPA drying marks and determines their coordinates, and distribution.

Step 3 — Selective Laser Cleaning + Final Imaging

The Femtum fiber laser source delivers high-contrast energy pulses, where organic contaminants absorb strongly while typical substrates (Si, SiN, InP, fused silica) do not. The contaminants rapidly heat, break apart, and ablate, while the underlying substrate stays intact. After cleaning, a final image acquisition verifies that the target area is free of contaminants.

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Laser Cleaning Key Benefits

Femtum’s laser cleaning solution offers highly selective, non-contact, and non-damaging removal of microscopic contaminants from sensitive surfaces. This is achieved by leveraging the distinct optical absorption properties of the contaminant and the underlying substrate, allowing the laser to target and ablate only the residue (e.g., organics, dust) based on its molecular structure.

Highly efficient and Precise

Selective, precise contaminant removal that preserves features and critical semiconductor surfaces

Non abrasive and Dry process

Non-contact, solvent-free cleaning that eliminates damage and residues.

Can be integrated into a current or existing semicon manufacturing system

Designed for offline or inline integration within existing semiconductor tools and automated manufacturing workflows.

Fiber-To-Chip Coupling

Clean optical interfaces are critical to achieving low insertion loss and stable performance in Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). During fiber-to-chip coupling, microscopic contaminants such as epoxy residues, silicone films, photoresist, or airborne particles can disrupt alignment and reduce packaging yield.

Femtum’s laser cleaning provides a selective, non-contact solution optimized for silicon photonics packaging. It removes organic residues with high precision while preserving delicate silicon, or oxide structures, restoring grating couplers, fiber array units (FAU), waveguide facets, and other optical interfaces to support higher coupling efficiency and more consistent device performance.

Before

After

Wire Bonding

Pristine bond pad surfaces are essential for reliable electrical connections in advanced semiconductor packaging. Femtum’s laser cleaning selectively removes organic contaminants such as epoxy residue, flux, oils, and fingerprints from gold pads without damaging the metal surface or surrounding device structures.

Using short-pulsed laser energy, the process minimizes heat diffusion and avoids thermal damage to sensitive microstructures found in high-density electronics, photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and co-packaged optics (CPO). The dry, chemical-free process is cleanroom compatible and, with vision-guided selective cleaning, enables consistent quality, higher throughput, and reduced rework.

Micro Lens Array

Micro-lens arrays require extremely clean surfaces to maintain optimal optical transmission and beam shaping. Even thin films of organic residues, dust, or handling contaminants can scatter light and degrade optical performance.

Femtum’s laser cleaning provides a precise, non-contact method to remove these contaminants without damaging delicate lens structures or coatings. By selectively targeting organic residues, the process restores optical clarity while preserving the underlying material.

How is laser cleaning vs current methods?

In semiconductor and silicon photonics manufacturing, removing microscopic contamination is critical to maintaining yield and device performance. Conventional cleaning methods such as plasma and CO₂ snow cleaning are commonly used but can struggle with selective removal of organic residues or particles on sensitive optical surfaces.
Femtum’s pulsed laser cleaning provides a precise, non-contact alternative. By leveraging wavelength-selective absorption, the laser targets contaminants,especially organic residues, while preserving the underlying substrate. The result is a dry, highly controlled cleaning process that improves yield, protects delicate photonic structures, and supports scalable manufacturing of advanced semiconductor and silicon photonics devices.

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Precision Laser Cleaning Solutions for Photonics Assembly

What Is Laser Cleaning ?

Why Cleaning ?

Step 1 — Image Acquisition of the Components

Step 2 — Detection & Localization of Contaminants