Major assembly products coming

Electronic News, June 16, 1997 by Bernard Levine

The word among many IC assembly equipment marketers at Nepcon East here last week was that major R&D projects are nearing completion throughout the industry. Many details, however, are being kept close to the vest. Just who is working on what was a subject of intense talk and speculation here, with many predicting major new high-density assembly product intros as soon as next month's Semicon/West, Surface Mount International in the fall and Nepcon West early next year. All leading gear firms are said to be eager to cash in when the advanced packaging IC placement market finally takes off, which many expect to be over the next year.

While demand so far for assembly machines to support flip chip, various chip-scale and BGA ploys, and other new advanced packaging techniques has been relatively modest, and often reportedly satisfied by jiggering existing assembly gear, most equipment marketers interviewed here insist demand will soon pick up, and will require more sophisticated placement machines. Two different approaches are reportedly emerging: Some assembly firms are betting on flexible machinery that OEM, contract manufacturing and other customers can easily adapt to meet future technology shifts; others think purchasers will prefer more highly dedicated machinery earmarked for flip chip or other specific technologies.

"We will have a machine in '98 dedicated to true high-speed flip chip," said Robert Kent, Jr., Siemens national sales manager for electronic assembly equipment, based in Alpharetta, Ga. "A lot of machines doing flip today can only do anywhere from 1,500-2,500 parts per hour. We have customers requiring 5,000 and above." His firm's pending machine will handles flip chip with 12-15 mil centers at that 5,000 speed, he said.

Today, he noted, "you can count on one hand the people doing huge flip chip, in high volume, but we think it will change. People are trying to reduce the size of boards. Once people get by the underfill issues--that's the bottleneck now, it adds a lot of time and cost to process. We need to do away with the underfill, or find a more cost-effective and less time-consuming method."

How are current-generation machines set up for flip chip today? "Today, we can add cameras necessary for flip-chip devices," Mr. Kent said. "And also add the feeders necessary to supply the flip-chip devices and the fluxer, either dip fluxer or spray fluxer. However, in a dedicated machine, all this will be built in. Flip chip requires very advanced vision parameters."

Meanwhile, Philips and Universal Instruments are among companies taking the more flexible approach. Erik van de Ven, Philips product manager for SMD assembly systems, Alpharetta, Ga., said his company's ACM high-end, fine-pitch machine introduced at this year's Nepcon West and available in August features a flexible, modular approach. "It is ready for future technologies like flip chip, CSP and Micro BGA."

How about a more dedicated approach? "I don't believe in that. Philips is taking the flexible, upgradeable approach. You won't have to buy a new machine in the future if you change your technology. We have the platform approach. If you only want to do flip chip on ACM, that's fine, but it is best to have a machine that can be easily modified for new component technologies. That is our approach."

He added, "The ACM can do as high as 3000 flip chips per hour, but like all machines, it is dependent on application and the design of the machine. A lot of claims of competitors on placement speed are unrealistic in real practice." High speed is important, he added, because "it allows customers to buy less machinery and use less floor space, and build things faster and cheaper."

Arthur Winterhalter, VP of corporate sales and marketing at Binghamton, N.Y.-based Universal Instruments, said his firm would have "an exciting announcement" at next year's Nepcon West, but wouldn't elaborate.

Asked about flip chip, he said, "It is a growing area, but not mainstream business." Nevertheless, he noted flip chip, CSPs and others are "growing rapidly. The advanced technology segment was under 2 percent worldwide three to four years ago; today it is 10 percent, and it could double in another three years, easily. Portability is driving it. The more stuff you jam into a cellular telephone, the more you need that."

Universal has taken a flexible, platform approach to the varying technologies, and he noted "in contract manufacturing, for example, the jobs are changing forever. The more flexibility they have with the equipment, the faster they can do the change-over." He also said, "You can do 5,000-10,000 an hour, given the right component."

ESEC's Zevatech unit plans to have a new Micron SC machine for advanced IC placement ready for Semicon/West, according to Michael Newkirk, VP of sales. It will be "for flip chip, Micro BGA, anything small," he said. Development of the machine, first started by Zevatech in the U.S., is now being spearheaded in Europe where new parent ESEC is headquartered. Leading the development is Roland Heitmann, who joined the company earlier this year from Universal Instruments and is now heading ESEC's ICP group. Steve Vickers also recently left Universal to become Zevatech's European business manager for the printed circuit board (PCB) group, it was learned here. Both Messrs. Heitmann and Vickers are based in Switzerland.