Advantages of digital servo amplifiers for control of a galvanometer based optical scanning system

Long-standing industry demand for “extended status messages” from galvanometer-based scan heads and ever-increasing dynamical requirements in industrial laser materials processing, e.g. due to advancing laser sources, have lead to the development of digital servo controls for galvanometers. The advanced control algorithms of a digitally controlled scan system lead to highly improved dynamics compared to an analog type where only a very limited number of parameters are used to tune the system to a certain dynamical requirement. Additionally, the abundant data acquired during control with a digital scan system are available for further processing. This paper discusses advantages of having such real-time feedback in laser-based materials processing applications and how e.g. process parameters like scan-speed and velocity can be used for quality control, applications development, or advanced laser control.