More efficient placement of flip-chips

ASM, the world’s largest equipment provider for the entire process chain in electronics manufacturing, will be present with its Back End Systems Division at the PCIM trade fair in Nuremberg. Booth 6-123 will also be the site of an innovative premiere for flip-chip placement applications. While inline solutions with die bonders reduce the productivity and flexibility of SMT placement lines, ASM offers a smart combination solution to decouple the wafer handling from the flip-chip placement process. The combination of the SUNBIRD inspection and packaging solution and the SIPLACE TX micron machine, which is optimized for flip-chip placement, improves not only the process stability and yield rates, but delivers significantly more productivity with speeds of up to 78,000 cph (components per hour) for the production of small modules, submodules and SiPs (system-in-package products).  

To be able to combine dies and SMT components in miniaturized modules, submodules and SiPs, electronics manufacturers have often used inline die bonders, which can take dies directly from the wafer to place and bond them. The disadvantage of this approach: With a maximum throughput rate of 10,000 to 15,000 dies per hour, the die bonders slowed down the other placement solutions of the SMT line.

The combined solution being unveiled by ASM at the PCIM show, is the first much more efficient alternative. To develop it, ASM's experts from the Back End Systems Division/Chip Assembly Division worked closely with specialists in its SMT Solutions Division. What makes the new solution so special is that it decouples the wafer handling and placement processes. To take the dies from the wafer, it uses ASM’s SUNBIRD back end solution, which can take, inspect, test, sort, mark and tape up to 30,000 dies per hour. All these processes can be executed and configured in parallel via the SUNBIRD turret head. The result are tapes in which the dies can be easily stored and supplied pre-flipped for the SMT placement process.

To place the flip-chips, a SIPLACE TX micron is used, a special version of the SIPLACE high-performance series. Using glass-ceramic scales, a high-resolution vision system, vacuum tools, high-precision linear drives and the latest control software, the SIPLACE TX micron with its two SpeedStar heads can place up to 78,000 components per hour with an accuracy rating of 15µm @ 3 sigma. The machine is thus able to place flip-chips in sizes as small as 0402 (metric) with exceptional precision and efficiency in combination with other SMT components as long as the dies on the wafer have been prepared for flip-chip placement (with bumps) and can be contacted via printed solder pads.

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