10
May 2000 - The direct Ball attach NOVATEC patent application
is launched and the first machines are sold by DEK Printing
Machines.
DirEKt
Ball placement is a development of PROFLOW, which has revolutionised
materials transfer for advanced SMT manufacturing. The system
features a ball transfer head, developed specifically to enhance
processes for grid array packaging. Traversing the stencil,
the head actively positions a solder ball at each pad location
; cycle time is fast, consistent and independent of I/O count.
Components may be processed in boats, strips, trays or boards.
Larger substrates,
up to 500mm x 400mm, can be processed using DirEKt Ball Placement,
compared with traditional ball placement techniques. The ball
reservoir is easily interchanged in situ, and the 2-stage
hopper design holds up to 50 million solder balls to extend
intervals between assists. Product changeover time is under
10 minutes.
Handling of
solder balls is greatly improved over conventional techniques.
DirEKt Ball
Attach gently feeds the spheres to the surface of the stencil,
preventing knocking an excessive friction inherent in gravity
placement methods. Solder balls are transferred to the grid
array in perfect condition. The transfer force exerted during
placement is sufficient to push the ball down into the flux
at each pad location, to enhance the integrity of the assembly
during downstream handling and reflow soldering.
Flux deposition
is also enhanced ; DEK is the world leader in materials transfer
technology for the electronics industry, supplying high performance
systems for printing solder paste, flux, adhesive, polymers
and alloys to the world's most influential equipment manufacturers.
DEK now brings
flux deposition in component packaging to new levels of accuracy,
repeatability and throughput. |
