Connect, no.125, July - August 2003, p.6

Enhanced facilities for Microtechnology

The move to new premises and purpose-built laboratory space has allowed the Microtechology section at TWI to increase the equipment and facilities available.

One new piece of key equipment is a high-precision, automatic component assembly cell. This cell was installed in April 2003 to complement the existing manual die attach and flip chip bonding capabilities.

Supplied by Palomar Technologies Inc, the assembly cell equipment is designed for fully automatic, high speed, precision microelectronics assembly. The flexible work cell performs stamping of adhesive dots as small as 150 microns in diameter, device placement and flip chip operations over a 4500cm ² work area. It is fitted with a high-precision eutectic pulse heated stage which enables solder attachment of components with a post- bond accuracy of ±5µm.

The machine's versatility enables it to bond a wide-range of devices such as bare die, flip chip die, and fine pitch surface mount components - without being reconfigured - for applications including optical modules, chip on board, microwave modules, multichip packages and hybrid microcircuits. It can be configured to handle devices in most presentation formats including waffle/Gel Pak ^TM, tape and reel, and diced wafers. Automation is achieved by the use of a computer controlled multi-axis robot and Cognex ^TM vision system.

TWI can help you effectively design your product for manufacturing by using the Palomar assembly cell during the product development process. Demonstrations of the equipment can also be arranged.

For further information on TWI's microelectronics assembly capability and associated technologies contact Jason Howlett. E-mail: jason.howlett@twi.co.uk.