LASER SINTERING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FORMING HIGH PURITY, LOW ROUGHNESS, LOW WARP SILICA GLASS

摘要

A system and method for making a thin sintered silica sheet is provided. The method includes providing a soot deposition surface and forming a glass soot sheet by delivering a stream of glass soot particles from a soot generating device to the soot deposition surface. The method includes providing a sintering laser positioned to direct a laser beam onto the soot sheet and forming a sintered glass sheet from the glass soot sheet by delivering a laser beam from the sintering laser onto the glass soot sheet. The sintered glass sheet formed by the laser sintering system or method is thin, has low surfaces roughness and/or low contaminant levels. The system is also configured to produce a sheet having low degrees of warp and/or low fictive temperatures.