Nanosecond Laser Etching of Aluminum-Plated Composite Materials Applied to Frequency Selective Surfaces

High-quality frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) are important for electromagnetic signal absorption/filtration. Usually, they are made from wave-transparent composite materials covered with a thin metal layer. Current machining methods show some disadvantages when performing fabrication on the structure. Based on its flexibility and uncontactable processing characteristics, nanosecond laser etching of aluminum-plated composite materials applied to FSSs was investigated. To observe the influence of the laser light incident angle, etching of a series of square areas with different incident angles was performed. Thereafter, an image processing method, named the image gray variance (IGV), was employed to perform etching quality evaluation analysis. The observed microscopic pictures of experimental samples were consistent with those of the IGV evaluation. The potential reasons that might affect the etching quality were analyzed. Following all the efforts above, an incident angle range of ±15° was recommended, and the best etching result was obtained at the incident angle of 10°. To observe the influence of the laser pulse overlap and focal spot size on the etched area border uniformity and on the potential damage to the base materials, a theoretical equation was given, and then its prediction of area border edge burrs fluctuation was compared with the experiments. Furthermore, SEM pictures of etched samples were examined. Based on the study, a processing window of the laser pulse overlap and focal spot size was recommended. To conclude, optimal etching results of the FSS materials could be guaranteed by using the right laser operating parameters with the nanosecond laser.