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Ultra short (ps, fs) laser pulses are used, when high requirements concerning accuracy, surface roughness, heat affected zone etc. are demanded for surface structuring. Ps-laser systems that are suited to be operated in industrial environments are of great interest for many practical applications. Here results in the field of 3-d structuring (metals and transparent materials), induced processes and structuring of flexible solar cells will be presented. Beside the pulse duration, which is given by the laser system, the user has a wide variety of optimization parameters such as fluence, repetition rate and wavelength. Based on a simple model it will be shown, that there exist optimum laser parameters to achieve maximum volume ablation rates at a given average power. To take benefit of these optimum parameters and to prevent harmful effects like plasma shielding and surface melting, adapted structuring strategies, depending on the requirements, have to be used. Today's ultra short pulsed systems have average powers from a few W up to a few 10W at high repetition rates. The actual available beam guiding systems are limited and can often not fulfill the requirements needed for high throughput structuring with optimized parameters. Based on the achieved results, the needs for future beam guiding systems will be discussed.

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The potential of pulsed laser system in the range of 10ps to 100ps pulse duration for material processing has been further investigated. In detail the dependency of the volume ablation rate, penetration depth and threshold fluence on the pulse duration and number of pulses applied to the material will be discussed. The experimental results show that in the case of copper and steel, better results in quality and efficiency of the ablated material are achieved with shorter pulse durations.

For surface and 3D structuring the ultra short pulsed laser systems are mostly used in combination with galvo scanners. This work reports on the synchronization of the scanner mirror motion with the clock of the laser pulses, which is usually in the range of 100 kHz and higher, by a modification of the electronic scanner control. This synchronization facilitates the placement of the small ablation craters from single pulses with the precision of about 1 µm relative to each other. The precise control of the crater positions offers the possibility to test and optimize new structuring strategies. Results of this optimization process with respect to minimum surface roughness, steepness of wall, accuracy to shape and efficiency will be presented.