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Home / About Us / Solutions / Ceramic Snapstrate / Del-Tron Solutions
Unique Process Cell Automates Singulation
of Ceramic Snapstrate Panels
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TSG Automation
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A unique process cell developed by TSG Automation, Ivyland, Pennsylvania, for some of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers completely automates the process of singulating or breaking ceramic snapstrate panels into individual parts used to produce hydrid components. The machine features dual breaker units that provide both clamping and stripper features to insure a clean break on the scribe line. A range of material handling features, including a cassette onload station, pneumatically actuated panel unloaded, dual 4-station walking beam conveyor, tray loading station and matrix tray loading of inspected substrates, provides for fully unattended operation. The greatest challenge in the design of the machine -- fitting the clamping and stripping units within the confines of other machine components -- was met by the use of an extremely compact crossed-roller slide from Del-Tron Precision, Inc., Bethel, Connecticut, that also resists the high loads generated in the breaking operation.
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A dual cassette presentation station feeds panels directly into the system, eliminating the need for operator attention while the machine is running. Parts can be presented in shelf cassettes, stack magazines/hoppers, conveyors, oven belts or manually. The operator loads a full cassette onto the presentation station. The station inventories panels in the cassette to provide for continuous and automatic presentation of panels to the system on demand. Cassettes are indexed vertically so that each slot in the panel is accessible.
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Panel unloader stage
The panel unloader stage removes snapstrate panels from each slot in the cassette upon demand and stages them in a positioning nest for pickup by the input conveyor. The unloader stage is pneumatically actuated and moves as follows: 1) out and into the cassette directly beneath the panel to be unloaded 2) up to lift the panel off the slots in each cassette 3) forward out of the cassette permitting the presentation of another panel as required 4) down to load the panel into the positioning nest. The input conveyor then removes panels from the positioning nest and transfers them to the scrap edge removal station.
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The scrap edge removal station is self-adjusting and successively removes the four border scrap edges from each snapstrate panel. The panel array is loaded onto a vacuum dampening platform that holds the panel in position. The array is moved and rotated 90 degrees for each cycle to present successive scrap edges to the pivot arm that removes the scrap edges from the panels.
The input conveyor then moves the panels to the first breaker station. A motor driven pusher blade assembly precisely indexes the panel into position on another vacuum damping platform. |
The station utilizes a clamp to hold the column that is being broken off and a mechanical stripper to hold the rest of the panel during actuation of the breaking arm that pivots downward to singulate the columns. Perhaps the most difficult design challenge in the entire machine came in the design of this and the following breaker stations. TSG engineers needed to fit four linear slides within the four inches between the scribe line on the ceramic panel and the nest that constitutes the next position on the walking beam conveyor. The slides need to be rugged because they are on the load path of the forces generated in the breaking operation.
Crossed roller slides solve problem
TSG Automation engineers selected Del-Tron RE-1 crossed roller slides because they are only slightly over one inch long, making it possible to meet the space requirements of the application. These slides offer higher load carrying capacity than ball slide products of equal size which substantially improves performance when operating at high cycling rates or with shock and overhanging loads. At the same time, Del-Tron crossed roller slides provide high accuracy, 0.0001" per inch of travel, and repeatability of 0.0001", making it possible to meet the critical accuracy requirements of the application. The next station is a 4-position walking beam conveyor that indexes the 4-up columns from the first to the second breaking stage. |
| Columns are removed from the first breaking stage with vacuum upon the rectilinear motion of the stage, located through successive nests and presented to the second breaking stage. The individual columns are removed from the nest on the motion of the walking beam stage which actuates up, forward, down and back to gently move the columns along the stage. |
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This station ensures a continuous supply of parts to the second singulation station and allows overlapping of initial process steps to meet the required cycle time. The second breaker stationbreaks the individual parts from the columns. A motor driven pusher blade assembly indexes the column into position onto the pneumatic breaking bed precisely over the breaking fulcrum. Mechanical strippers and clamps driven by linear actuators hold the columns in position in the same manner as the first breaker station. The compact footprint of the RE-1 units meet the space requirements of this station, actually even tighter than the first breaking station because the columns being broken are smaller than the original panels.
On-line inspection
The individual parts produced in the second breaker station are passed down onto the output conveyor. This is another 4-position walking beam conveyor that transports the parts through the inspection station that marks bad parts with a reject ink mark. A sensor checks each circuit for the presence or absence of a reject ink mark and removes bad substrates from the output conveyor. and presents good parts for offloading to the robotic assembly stage. Rejects parts are physically removed from the end of the output conveyor and dropped into a discard bin for removal from the system.
The final station nests the individual inspected substrates for pickup and serves as an interface to control feeding of parts from the system. Individual parts are loaded into the nest upon each successive index of the output conveyor. The matrix tray loading stage removes nested substrates from the output conveyor and indexed into position over the 100-pocket matrix tray for loading. The placement head uses a centering mechanical gripper assembly to positively pick up each staged substrate from the output conveyor. The matrix trays are then moved on slide mounted pneumatic shuttles to the next process cell.
The machine described above is only one possible process configuration for ceramic singulation. Parts can be presented to and loaded from the singulation system from shelf cassettes, stack magazines, conveyors, oven belts as well as manually. Parts processing can include the following capabilities: scrap edge removal, bar code scanning, parts inspection, part sorting and other requirements. The conveyors, tracks and most of the stages are mounted on slides to enable quick and precise adjustment from one size to another. Adjustments to various stations of the system can be done automatically or in under two minutes manually. This application provides an excellent example of how advanced components available off the shelf can be used to fully automate critical semiconductor manufacturing processes.
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Del-Tron Precision began operations in 1974 supplying original equipment manufacturers with the world’s first commercially available subminiature ball slide. Since then, thousands of Del-Tron ball slides have been incorporated into medical analyzing and testing machines, semiconductor processing equipment, computer peripherals, assembly systems, scientific instruments and many other machines. Del-Tron’s modern corporate campus boasts highly automated computer controlled equipment and final inspection of 100% of all products has been Del-Tron’s policy since its inception. For more information, contact Del-Tron by phone at 800-245-5013, by fax at 203-778-2721 or by email: deltron@deltron.com. |
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