Essemtec AG, a leading manufacturer of surface mount technology production equipment, announces that it has worked with leading suppliers of die bonders to develop a highly economical solution for the efficient placement of special components on film or flex boards, providing many benefits to the users.

The new machine concept is based on the FLX2010C, the capable forerunner of the currently introduced FLX2011. The placement solution features a conveyor system that allows for flexible and fast placement operations on the substrate. The substrate itself, a sandwich piece consisting of an aluminum carrier with the film and downholder, will be located on the conveyor and moved into the placement position.

The FLX2010C can be placed upstream in the line before a die bonder, which dispenses adhesive and places the chips on the substrate. In a downstream pick-and-place process, the special components will be accurately placed on these dice, where the sandwich carrier will be inserted from the left side and stopped by means of a "stopin" mechanism. The carrier is located securely with a chuck. Nozzles suck in from the underside of the sandwich carrier at defined positions in order to prevent shifting during the subsequent placement operation. As a result, the film substrate can be populated from conventional component feeder systems after the alignment of the fiducials. The film leaves the placement machine via the conveyor after the release of the sandwich carrier from the vacuum for the next process step to follow.

The FLX2010C provides users with numerous benefits over other machine solutions. The equipment, based on Essemtec’s highly flexible, modular standard placement module FLX2010C, provides excellent accuracy and durability. The basis of the platform is that a standard placement system can be used even for the design of this special purpose machine. There are more than 500 of these modules in operation worldwide.