A new conveyor chain is gentle to soft products and is said to offer increased efficiency and service life, even in environments where dust and particulates are a problem. Features smooth surfaces and link interfaces for improved gentleness and minimum dust generation in product handling. Link interfaces are designed to minimize dust intrusion to the conveyors. Chain and slide rail contact optimised to enhance service life and minimize friction.

FlexLink, flexlink.com

Textool brand BGA Open Top Test and Burn-In Socket 1.0 mm pitch, Type III is now available.

Using modular, injection-molded bodies and stamp-and-form contacts, this burn-in socket for high-end logic, programmable BGA (PBGA), MCM and system-in-package devices is designed for packages up to 47.5 x 47.5 mm, with matrices of up to 45 x 45 and lead counts to 2025. Is RoHS compliant.

Nest comb design allows full matrix array applications with minimal z-axis warp. By separating the socket nest into dual, interlocking combs, withstands the high contact force loads inherent in high lead count sockets.

Micro-Wiping contact scrubs device leads with each engage and disengage cycle, removing the oxide layer from solder balls, as well as removing contaminants from the contact surface. Contributes to improved contact resistance and reduces the need for cleaning sockets prior to the end of their rated life cycle.

Dual beam contact motion equalizes wear on the contact blades, maximizing mechanical reliability and durability. Facilitates pick-and-place operations by maintaining ball position throughout the actuation cycle. Package shift during loading and unloading is minimal.

3M, www.3M.com

DEK has developed wafer bumping and ball placement solutions for packaging applications by using efficient screen printing techniques and enabling technologies such as enclosed print head material deposition.

“Customers are looking for reduced costs on several levels,” says Richard Heimsch, president. “Manufacturers want lower initial equipment investment, long-term ownership and tooling costs. DEK has responded to these requirements by delivering a flexible platform that can deposit paste and place solder flux and solder balls, while handling devices in different input formats.”

For bumping at the wafer and substrate levels, a simple print and reflow method allows for single stroke, unlimited bump quantity with bump height targets of 80 to150 microns on pitches of 150 to 500 microns. This technique requires strict application of design rules when creating the stencil, which is generally electroformed.  The design of the bond pads must allow sufficient contact area to achieve good solder joint strength for a given stand-off.  The technologies that allow printing platforms to meet these semiconductor packaging requirements include automated wafer handing systems, Vortex clean-room compatible paperless cleaning systems and ProFlow enclosed print head technology which is said to deliver paste volume transfer and uniformity.

When pitch and bump size is appropriate, placing instead of forming solder bumps at the wafer and substrate levels is an alternative. DirEKt Ball Placement places solder balls as small as 0.3 mm in diameter onto substrates or wafers, with fine-pitch accuracy and first-pass yields reportedly better than 99%. Flux is deposited at each interconnect site. Then, the fully enclosed ProFlow ball transfer head guides each solder ball directly to the surface of the stencil and a controlled placement force seats each ball into the flux. Cycle time is fast and completely independent of I/O count.

DEK, www.dek.com

AVX Corp. has released an updated capability guide covering a range of RoHS-compliant, lead-free passive and interconnect components. Includes leaded radial, axial ceramic capacitors and radial tantalum capacitors.

Lead-free product offerings include multilayer ceramic capacitors, Tantalum capacitors, Niobium Oxide (OxiCap) capacitors, circuit protection, filtering, frequency control devices as well as standard and custom interconnects in addition to many other product lines. 

A full RoHS compliant product listing is available at http://www.avx.com/docs/catalogs/RoHS_Status.pdf.