Taking AP on the Road — What a Concept
By Françoise von Trapp, associate editor
The seed was planted during a redeye flight from L.A. to Boston. My seatmate, Jim Chase, president of Kolver, USA, was also returning from the IPC Printed Circuits Expo, APEX, and the Designer's Summit. When I explained that I was new to the industry with a lot to learn, he offered to use his contacts to arrange a facility tour of IBM in Bromont, QC.
Back in Nashua, NH, the concept blossomed. Why not take the whole team on the road to visit facilities all over the country? After all, it's one thing to cover the industry and technology through trade shows, conferences, press releases, and contributed articles; and quite another to suit up in lab coats, bouffants, and booties to witness manufacturing production lines firsthand.
The Master Plan
Editorial visits and sales calls weren't new ideas. The Roadshow had to take a fresh approach. We wanted to give readers an "in-the-trenches" view of the packaging industry. Both developing technology and actual production would drive our visits. We would meet everyone from senior executives to cleanroom technicians. We decided to start with SUSS MicroTec in Waterbury, VT, to follow up on the progress of the C4NP project with IBM, featured on the November 2005 cover of Advanced Packaging, and to visit John Harris, manager of worldwide test engineering at IBM Microelectronics in Burlington, for a tour of the engineering test center (Figure 1). Kathy Poggi, associate publisher, and Gail Flower, editor-in-chief, had been impressed with his keynote address at the Burn-in Test Workshop (BiTS) in Tempe, AZ. Plus, the views in Vermont are really beautiful, and Gail wanted to take the team hiking.
Our Debut Trip — April 19-21, 2006
With all the arrangements made, we donned our Roadshow Crew T-shirts and loaded the van with new Advanced Packaging Roadshow signage, laminated copies of the November 2005 cover story, digital camera, and hiking gear, and headed north. We set up Roadshow Headquarters at a great little place, Hunger Mountain Inn, in Waterbury, VT, because it was conveniently close to SUSS, 30 minutes from Burlington, and coincidentally owned and operated by my brother and his wife.
Day One — SUSS MicroTec
After a morning hike, we got down to business at SUSS MicroTec in Waterbury Center. Over lunch, we found out that Karl Suss chose this as the site for the U.S. headquarters of his company for similar reasons we von Trapps settled in the neighboring town of Stowe — it reminded him of Bavaria (Figure 2).
Michael Kipp, General Manager of SUSS MicroTec's wafer bonding division, explained that each of the four divisions — wafer bonding, lithography, device bonding, and probe — is set up as a separate operation. The wafer bonder division focuses on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), research and development (R&D), silicon-on-insulator (SOI), light-emitting-diode (LED) and contract manufacturing markets. Kipp told us that the MEMS market is the largest growing for SUSS.
"The traditional market for MEMS is automotive – but more and more we're seeing it in consumer applications. Sony is producing 90 million silicon microphones a year using MEMS chips," said Amir Mirza, Ph.D., international product manager, wafer bonding at SUSS (Figure 3).
What distinguishes SUSS from other MEMS equipment suppliers is that they offer a tool for every step of MEMS production, noted Kipp. Because MEMS testing solutions have been insufficient, SUSS became instrumental in the establishment of Memunity, an open community of companies and institutes that realized testing MEMS devices at wafer-level would reduce the cost of MEMS. Other participants include Polytec, Delta, and the Fraunhofer IZM.
The C4NP business unit, lead by Emmet Hughlett, business manager at SUSS, is also headquartered in Waterbury. (Figure 4). After listening to Hughlett's presentation, we gained further insight into C4NP. As he described it, the process is surprisingly simple. Instead of bumping wafers using the traditional and costly electroplating process, glass-etched molds are filled with solder. A wafer is pressed to the mold and they are heated together. Because solder and glass won't bond, the solder in the mold transfers and bonds to the wafer.
IBM, which partnered with SUSS to provide the equipment, developed and owns this process. The arrangement calls for SUSS to provide equipment for IBM to use while perfecting the process. "Then we would be able to use that process when we build the equipment for high-volume manufacturing," explained Hughlett.
Currently, the molds are fabricated at IBM's facility in Bromont, QC; however, the intention is for a third party supplier to provide molds once full-scale production begins. A prototype production line is online in Fishkill, NY. C4NP is going through IBM's rigorous qualification stages, and data has recently been released, said Hughlett. Customers are very interested in the process, he says. And have been visiting the Fishkill facility for demonstrations.
Our visit to SUSS concluded with a tour of the wafer bonding facility, including the clean room. Lee Mather, assistant editor of Advanced Packaging, and I suited up and headed in to check out the bonding in action (Figure 5). Paul Gorun, bond cluster product engineer, showed us a bonded wafer destined for use as an accelerometer in the automotive industry that featured microscopic cantilevers. I was amazed.
Because road trips are also about team building, the crew decided to end the day with a dinner at — where else? — the Trapp Family Lodge. Over Wienerschnitzel and Kalbgeschnetzeltes, we reviewed the day's events, and planned our next stop.
Day 2 — IBM Burlington — Microelectronics Division
Fortified by a breakfast of banana bread and eggs Florentine, we hit the road early and made our way to the Burlington campus of IBM in Essex Jct., VT (Figure 6). Impressive to say the least, this "city within a city" occupies 3.5 million square feet on 725 acres, and has its own waste treatment facility, utility plant, back-up generators, ambulance and fire engines with emergency response crew, cafeterias, a credit union, medical staff, and even a library. Approximately 6000 employees help to manufacture 5,000 products and more than 250 process flows. Needless to say, we saw a very small portion of this facility — the wafer and final test area.
The Burlington facility produces photo masks — glass plates that transfer circuitry patterns to silicon wafers – for all of IBM. They are a semiconductor operation with a comparable mission to Texas Instruments' or Intel's, noted IBM's John Harris, providing technology for the IBM systems group and the general OEM market. They are a major supplier to RF/Mixed Signal market, and develop next-generation game processors for the three major video game producers - Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. "It's a nice position from a market share standpoint," said Harris, "because we really don't care how the market swings. Between the three, we've got the entire market covered." They are also a major foundry supplier for digital system-on-chip (SoC) devices.
The Test Engineering facility (Figure 7) provides test and burn-in expertise and technical solutions for all IBM and OEM products, explained Harris. Burn-in is a reliability stress test that accelerates the aging process by plugging the devices into a test socket that elevates voltage and temperature to age the parts and weed out the defective ones that don't comply with IBM's high reliability requirements. Harris showed us several styles of burn-in boards, including one that IBM engineers develop in-house.
From the burn-in area, we toured the 200-mm wafer-probe test line. As probes test each die on a wafer for functionality, both bad and good die are marked so the good ones can be picked off and used. Yield rate of wafers varies, depending on the number of die per wafer. The smaller the die, the higher the yield because there is a lower probability of a defect on any given die, Harris explained.
It was interesting to note the different equipment manufacturers represented in the clean room. Harris explained that IBM chooses their test equipment by a "best-of-breed" selection process. Suppliers are evaluated by technical performance, cost-of-ownership, productivity, and test time. "Sometimes we have a head-to-head bake-off," he added. Devices with the highest requirements are often tested on equipment developed by IBM, rather than another equipment provider.
We agreed that our trip would not be complete without a visit to Ben and Jerry's. Unfortunately, the line for the tour was too long, so our stop was limited to ice cream and shopping. Thus fortified, we loaded up the van once again and headed back to Nashua.
Epilogue
Due to conflicting schedules, we didn't make it to IBM in Bromont this trip, but it's still on our list of places to visit, especially since it's where C4NP wafer molds are currently fabricated. We have some ideas of where to visit next, but we'd also like to hear from our readers. In 50 words or less, tell the Roadshow Crew why we should visit your company. Click here to find out more. You never know — you may get to have your picture taken with us. It's a team-building experience.
Advanced Packaging: On the Road Again
By Françoise von Trapp, managing editor
We had such a great time, met such interesting people, and learned so much on our first Roadshow trip that we knew it was just the beginning of a great new element of Advanced Packaging. Where to visit next was the only question. The answer came in the form of an invitation from Norm Quesnel, marketing manager of Advanced Thermal Solutions, who had been working with us on a cover feature for the May/June issue. Not far from their location in Norwood, MA, is Advanced Interconnections in West Warwick, RI. Ann Cibelli, marketing manager, graciously accepted our request for a tour of their socket manufacturing facility. So once again, the shirts were donned and the cameras and signs were packed, and off we went to learn all we could about these companies and what they contribute to the industry.
Advanced Interconnections
Rhode Islanders have a different way of looking at the world. Despite being the smallest state in the union, it's quite possible to live there your whole life without ever having seen the other side of the state — which, for the most part, isn't more than an hour away. I can say this because I grew up in Rhode Island. So it stands to reason that both Advanced Interconnections' facilities are within 5 minutes of one another, yet the company competes in a global market. At one time, they operated a facility in Mexico, but discovered it to be a duplication of processes that wasn't worthwhile, explained Michael Murphy, founder and president of Advanced Interconnections. Instead, they attack efficiencies with lean manufacturing.
Founded by Murphy, his father, Jim Murphy, and wife, Ann Murphy, in 1982, Advanced Interconnections began with the development of tooled pin grid arrays (PGAs). "Lowering insertion force of ceramic pin grid arrays into the socket was a big issue at the time," said Murphy. They received their first order from Prime Computer as a result of successfully lowering the insertion force of their PGA socket — something their key competitor hadn't been able to do. The business grew from there.
One of their first patents was a product developed by Jim Murphy called Peel-A-Way®. This novel way of carrying pins to the PCB with a flexible, film substrate allows both sides of the substrate to be inspected — something the military needed. This product has been used in everything from notebook computers to the space shuttle, noted Murphy.
Touring the Floor
In 1986, the existing 30,000-sq-ft. facility was built. Many of the 120 employees have been with the company 15 years or more, creating a consistent workforce that has evolved along with the products, noted John Ross, operations manager. "They come up with a lot of the ideas we've been implementing in manufacturing," he said. Ross, who gave us a tour of the manufacturing plant, explained that his focus has been on increased volume through lean manufacturing. As such, the physical plant is being transformed from lines to a work-cell model to maintain a flexible work condition. Whether they get an order for one or two pieces or 10,000 pieces, the work-cell model is conducive to accommodating this, explained Ross. Reducing visual stress by removing shelving and addressing lighting helps in their goal. Ross said that in the time he's been at Advanced Interconnections, lead times have been shortened from 6–8 weeks to 5 days on several products.
Our tour of the plant took us to the quality lab where John Soares, quality technician, demonstrated a force tester which performed a pin-on-spring test. The force tester is used to test the first cycle of a spring to determine its load value, Soares explained. The spring is then cycled on other equipment followed by additional tests. Jim Rocha, quality manager, also showed us an optical inspection tool that uses laser-scan technology to inspect solder balls to create the best plane possible. It shows what contact the device will have.
Advanced Interconnections continues to push the limits of technology and has become known for taking chances. For instance, when carrier vendors told them .5-mm pitch couldn't be achieved, they purchased the equipment and produced the carriers themselves. "Rather than put up with vendors telling us what can or can't be done, we just opted to buy our own equipment," said Ross. They are vertically integrated and produce their own terminals, insulators, and molds in-house. We got to see some of this state-of-the-art equipment in action.
Richard Alviti, manufacturing engineer, demonstrated the Excellon Concept 129, which they use to custom-drill holes in FR-4 to make these carriers for their low-volume and custom orders. High-volume orders tend to be custom-molded. Also demonstrated was the Charmilles electrical-discharge machine (EDM), which makes molds by burning cavities into steel; and the injection-molding system, where they make insulators for connectors and sockets. Their satellite facility houses the screw machines where they machine their own pins. Having their own tool room where they can machine and repair their own molds helps set them apart from competitors, explained Ross.
All in the Family
One of the reasons Advanced Interconnections experiences low turnover of their workforce is their practice of promoting from within and encouraging family involvement, said Ross. Before advertising positions, existing employees are often asked if they have any family members looking for work. Many of the manufacturing technicians originally emigrated from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. All of this contributes to the family atmosphere of the company. What began in a first floor walk-up apartment with a $300 ad has grown into a globally competitive company without losing the personal feel. That's the Rhode Island touch at work.
Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc.
Now that we understood what went into socket assembly, it was time to head off to uncharted territories — the mysteries of thermal management had yet to be explored, and we were going to be running out of daylight. We bid farewell to our Rhode Island friends, and found our way (without the help of a GPS) to Advanced Thermal Solutions, Inc. (ATS).
It became apparent that there was a recurring theme for this Roadshow trip. Here again was a company that showed a pioneer spirit from the beginning — if what they need to solve the problem, doesn't exist, they built it themselves. That's how ATS grew from a consulting firm for thermal management in 1989 to a one-stop shop for thermal management and electronics packaging in 1999, explained Kaveh Azar, CEO of ATS.
The company employs slightly over 40 people, two of whom are fully dedicated to research and development. Two state-of-the-art thermal test labs are located at the world headquarters in Norwood, and across the street is a 10,000-sq-ft. manufacturing facility. ATS has the capability to design, fabricate, test, verify, and ship products to customers. They also have manufacturing partners in China for high-volume production; an engineering office in Holland with a complete thermal characterization lab, sales offices in CA and soon to be opened in China. ATS offers its products across the world through sales representation agencies.
Azar explained that heatsinks are highly commoditized, with lots of "me-too" products out there, and many companies that manufacture them. To be a success in the market, they needed to carve a niche. "Our forte is tough-to-cool, tough-to-package applications," he said. ATS focuses on developing state-of-the-art cooling solutions and test instruments for electronics. They've made their mark in the data storage and telecom industries, he noted, and lists Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Intel, Cisco, Nortel, Nokia, EMC2, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems as part of their client base.
ATS heatsinks are designed to suit particular challenges, using four different manufacturing techniques. Machining technology is used to fabricate custom-design heat sinks with narrow fin spacing, thin fins, and unique base. Metal forging is suited for devices having confined aspect ratios. They are one of five companies in the U.S. with compression-based extrusion capabilities, and use a vacuum and RF brazing technology for their patented, single-fin assembly process, which provide a range of options for fin size, spacing, and impressions. Azar said the company holds six patents with 13 in the pending stages.
Touring the Test Lab
Our visit continued with a tour of the test facilities where ATS research scientists demonstrated test equipment. Wes Goodman, mechanical design engineer, started off by demonstrating their research-quality wind tunnel that uses smoke for flow visualization. Velocity is calibrated in a wind tunnel that is capable of low (natural convection) to high-velocity flows with air temperature ranging from sub-ambient to 150°C. Goodman explained that this method of testing is more accurate than simulation software. As with most of their equipment, the wind tunnel was built for their own consulting and test purposes, but is now available for purchase, he said. Next we learned about the Automatic Temperature and Velocity Sensor (ATVS), product, used for simultaneous air temperature and velocity measurement and employing a single sensing element. This patented technology uses a single sensor to measure both temperature and velocity at the exact same location in the test domain, explained Bahman Tavassoli, Ph.D., research engineer.
The Roadshow Crew's favorite demonstration of the visit was the water tunnel used to evaluate flow through heatsinks and PCBs. This piece of equipment clearly demonstrated the difference in the heatsinks being tested. Mojtaba Pourvash, research engineer, compared an off-the-shelf pin-fin heatsink with an ATS patented maxiFLOW™ heatsink. As small jets dispense ink through the water flow, "shoot-out" is demonstrated as the ink flows around the sides of the pin-fin heatsink. However, with the maxiFLOW™, the ink flows through the fins, simulating how air would flow and cool the device. The tunnel can be calibrated to locally measure approach air velocity and air flow distribution on a PCB or a flow through the fin field of a heat sink.
Lastly, we were shown a liquid crystal thermographic analysis tool system called thermVIEW™. It measures temperature changes in same manner that a mood ring works. A heated surface (die, component, PCB) is painted with liquid crystal that uses an RGB factor where red is cold and blue is hot, and is viewed with a microscope down to 1-µm of spatial resolution. Proprietary software calculates spot or temperature profile and is used for thermal mapping of the desired heated surface, explained Tavassoli.
Epilogue
A decal on one of the wind tunnels in the ATS test lab reads "Seeing is Believing." After a day rich in hands-on experience, we couldn't agree more. It looks like we're on to something. I wonder where the next Roadshow trip will lead us? We're open to suggestions.
Figure 1. Janice Hedyka, receptionist at Advanced Interconnections, rolled out the red carpet for the Roadshow Crew. Here she is with Kathy Poggi, associate publisher. |
Figure 2. Here we are with the rest of the Advanced Interconnections team... |
Figure 3. Advanced Interconnections' range of socket products. |
Figure 4. John Soares, quality technician, demonstrates a force tester performing a pin-on-spring test. |
Figure 5. Channdany Hout is pictured operating a pick and place machine used for placing devices, chips, capacitors, etc. |
Figure 6. The ATS team welcomes the Roadshow Crew, from left to right: Lee Mather, Stuart Green, V.P. customer affairs, Kathy Poggi, Kaveh Azar, CEO, Francoise von Trapp. |
Figure 7. Françoise presents Kaveh with a preview of the July 2006 cover featuring ATS. |
Figure 8. Research-quality wind tunnel that uses smoke for flow visualization. |
Figure 9. Bahman Tavassoli, Ph.D., (left) and .Mojtaba Pourvash, (right) both research engineers, demonstrated the water tunnel used to evaluate flow through heatsinks and PCBs. |
Figure 10. An assortment of ATS custom-designed heatsinks. |
Advanced Packaging: On the Move
By Françoise von Trapp, managing editor
This Roadshow thing is taking on a life of its own. Our latest trip literally took us from coast-to-coast and back again. We heard that Dage Precision Industries was moving their Fremont, CA, sales and service offices to a newer facility, so we thought we'd pay a visit and help them move in while we were all out in San Francisco for SEMICON West. Contributing editor, Julia Goldstein, Ph.D., joined the Roadshow Crew for our visit to Dage. Hal Hendrickson, general manager, assembled a welcoming committee that included Kimbela Randle, eastern regional sales manager; Evstatin Krastev, Ph.D., application engineer; Victor Morse, national sales manager, bondtest; Luis Manriquez, logistics manager; and Christopher Boles, junior field service technician.
For the east coast portion, we visited Newport Corporation's MRSI division, located in Billerica, MA. Our hosts included Dan Crowley, director of sales; and Peter Cronin, product specialist. Brian Bardwell, senior manager of corporate communications for Newport and its subsidiary, Spectra-Physics, flew in from Irvine for the occasion. Michael Chalsen, site manager and senior director of operations, and Michael Gagnon, director of manufacturing engineering gave us the grand tour of the die-bonder manufacturing facility.
Dage Precision Industries
Dage is a worldwide sales and service organization that began 39 years ago as a rep company before getting into the bond-tester business. Hendrickson estimates that Dage has a majority of the worldwide market. In 1997, the company was sold to the Bank of Scotland. In 1999, the management investigated complementary technologies to pull testers, and purchased a German x-ray tube company called MediXtec. They developed their first x-ray system around the MediXtec open tube technology which they introduced in 2001, and recently shipped their 500th system. This is still the base technology used by Dage and many competitors.
The present generation system is based on open tube, transmissive technology that allows focusing potential from 2 to 0.6 µm and incorporates advancements, such as a digital system, increasing pixel number from 300,000 to over 1.3 megapixels for a clearer, sharper image, and 16-bit processing to provide 65,000 levels of grayscale. The latest generation of Dage's system, the NT250 increased the focusing potential to as low as 250nm and took Dage from a filament-based to an alternative system. Krastev demonstrated this technology in the XD7600, using a standard wireless PC card as a sample, and showed us how the system automatically finds the regions of interest — in this case a BGA — and x-rays it to find voids and other imperfections.
The Move to Computer Tomography
Dage introduced their computer tomography (CT) system at SEMICON West 2006. Hendrickson sees CT as a valuable advancement for stacked-die, MEMS, and RFID as a non-destructive method of inspection. Dage partnered with TeraRecon, a third party processor, for this project. Using Dage's resolution and TeraRecon's compiler, they were able to reduce the amount of time it took to deliver a 3-D image. "TeraRecon has significant processing capability in their system so as soon as we take our first image and feed it to them, they start to compile the 3-D image," Hendrickson explained. The drawback with CT- and the reason Dage didn't pursue it before — was that previously all the images were compiled off line, and it would take from 30 minutes to 2 hours to get the image. "We can now deliver an image within minutes after the last image is taken," said Hendrickson, "That's a real advantage."
The Move to New Headquarters
Dage's new facility provides increased product demonstration and application laboratory capabilities, and houses the existing staff with room for additional personnel and other added benefits. "One of my requirements for moving to the new facility was that we get an award case out front," joked Hendrickson.
This year, Dage adds the 2006 Advanced Packaging Award for their 4000HS high-speed bond tester in the testing and equipment category to the case along side other accolades including the 2005 and 2003 Vision Awards, and the Queen's Award in 2004 and 2006. The Queen's Award recognizes UK companies who have been able to take product to market profitably. A representative from the shop floor, engineering, and management are invited to Buckingham Palace and the award is presented by the Queen.
"It's nice to be recognized, especially when you're investing a significant amount of time and energy into R&D, which is one of Dage's high points," said Hendrickson. After selling off a division in China, the company rolled a significant amount of the profits into inventory and increasing R&D. Dage's philosophy is to focus on x-ray for electronics. "We have our niche — we know what we do, we know what we do well," said Hendrickson. Our R&D group is focused in that direction, and we have a strong world wide support network."
Newport Corporation
Newport Corporation and Advanced Packaging go way back. If you look on the back cover of our first issue in the summer of 1992, you'll see MRSI's ad introducing the MRSI-505 die-bonder, which is now up to the 605 generation. The platform has continually evolved to meet the growing needs of advanced packaging. The company, whose name hails from Newport Beach, CA, where it was originally founded, is headquartered in Irvine, CA and specializes in laser and photonic solutions to make, manage, and measure light.
In 2002, Newport bought MRSI, which was privately held when MRSI's dispensers and die-bonders were introduced. The Billerica manufacturing facility has employees in manufacturing, sales, marketing, and engineering, and is the headquarters for MRSI which focuses on advanced semiconductor packaging and turn-key systems for dispense and assembly for die attach, eutectic bonding and flip chip. "Newport MRSI specializes in complex die-attach solutions and conductive epoxy dispensing," said Dan Crowley. "The applications we are well known for include microwave, RF, photonics, MCM, and advanced semiconductor packaging."
Crowley sites process leadership as one of Newport's strong points. "We're able to draw people who have extensive process and applications experience and then they come to us as employees and can fully understand what the customer is looking for." He said, "all of the engineers working in the MRSI division have worked in manufacturing in some capacity. Capital equipment manufacturing is an experienced-based business, and according to Crowley, the crew at MRSI has been together a long time — the average years of service is over 15. Mike Chalsen was the second employee hired.
The ability to provide dispense and assembly turnkey solutions to their customers with application support is a strategic advantage for the company. "We make dispense and assembly equipment, and in some cases we make whole integrated production lines because the die bonder and the dispenser are the anchors of those lines, so customers come to us to put together the entire line." Crowley explained.
The Grand Tour
Our tour began with a visit to the buy-off room, where equipment that has been configured to customer specifications can be tested by the customer using state-of-the-art equipment before they take delivery. Crowley said the advantage of this is that it saves the time of sending parts for testing to the customer, whose plant may be in another country, and then getting the results back.
Peter Cronin demonstrated a MRSI 605 standard die bonder, which was loaded with almost every option they offer — waffle packs in front and back, suction for gel packs, tape and reel feeder, tool changer, epoxy stamping, up-looking camera for flip chip, two down-looking cameras for multiple magnification, a boat with conveyor for magazines, needle cleaning and calibration for dispense, and purge station. Cronin explained that systems have a steel frame, a better-than-granite slab called black diabase — mined only from the Impala vein in South Africa, shipped to Barre VT to the Rock of Ages quarry to be machined, and sent to the manufacturing facility in Billerica — pick-and-place robot, and two cameras. We also saw the MRSI-M5, which is based on a cast composite instead of the black diabase. This provides enough stability for the 5-µm accuracy system.
The manufacturing floor itself adheres to 5S organization — where everything has a place and everything is in its place, explained Mike Gagnon. The 5S's stands for sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. Gagnon said this is part of Newport's demand flow technology (DFT) that follows a work cell model.
Chalsen explained that the facility handles basically light manufacturing. The systems are built up to a common platform, and they configure them with options based on the customers order. He added that, on average, 80% of the system is same, and about 20% is customized or configured. This allows them to cost-competitively manufacture in the U.S. while many of our competitors are forced to outsource overseas. As an example, he showed us the MRSI-M5 Assembly Cell, which won the Attendee's Choice Award in 2005 for most innovative product in the final manufacturing category.
The tour wouldn't have been complete without a visit to the workout room outfitted with all sorts of exercise equipment. No wonder employees stay around for years — the on-site perks seemed pretty great. To top off the visit, the Newport team treated us to lunch at Capellini's — a favorite little Italian spot frequented by Crowley and Cronin — a fact that became obvious when the waitress knew them on sight.
Epilogue
Among the benefits of the Roadshow, I'm discovering, is the knowledge base we've gained from our in-the-trenches viewpoint of these companies. So far we've learned about wafer bonding and C4NP, how probe testing and burn-in sockets work, how sockets are assembled, and what needs to be considered in thermal management. Visiting Dage taught us about high-speed bond testers and x-ray inspection, and from Newport, we learned not only about how capital equipment is built, but more about different methods of die-attach. Next on the agenda, I think we'll learn about advanced interconnections and materials that play a big part in packaging. Stay tuned.
Advanced Packaging Loves NY
Or Burning Down the House
By Françoise von Trapp, managing editor
Our latest Roadshow took us to the rolling hills of New York State for adventures that would have made Thelma and Louise proud. Despite the GPS system in Kathy Poggi's car, we still managed to veer off-course a few times. The first hotel we were booked into was so seedy-looking, we drove away, frantically dialing our cell phones to find better lodgings. The next morning started late, because Kathy's new car was keyed during the night, so the police had to be brought in.
Our visits the first day took us to Endicott Interconnect, in Binghamton, NY, the birthplace of IBM. Here we learned about build-up organic substrates that will revolutionize military, aerospace, and medical electronics with their thin, low-profile, lower-cost, and increased electrical performance. Next, we visited Universal Instruments, and heard about the company's restructuring plans, the launching of Unovis, and the work the SMT Packaging Laboratory is doing under the watchful eye of George Westby.
After an educational and interesting day, we made up for the mishaps of the night before, beginning with a block party at the Utica Club Brewery, where we met up with Rick Short, of Indium. Rick introduced us to the raucous nightlife of Varick Street. We made our way from the brewery, past a creatively named hotdog stand for a photo opportunity, danced with the Varick Street Buskers, and ended up at Café Fianchetto's, a lovely Italian restaurant which we accidentally almost torched when a napkin left too close to a tea-light candle caught fire. Thinking quickly, Gail grabbed the flaming article, tossed it on the wood floor, and stomped it out with her sandaled foot. Needless to say, there's never a dull moment on the Roadshow circuit. However, we got right down to business the next morning and learned all about Indium's latest products, including their thermal interface materials and solder preforms.
Endicott Interconnect
When Endicott Interconnect spun-off from IBM Microelectronics, their organic build-up substrate was just being developed. IBM chose to keep the ceramic technology line, and Endicott Interconnect acquired the HyperBGA line. Ceramic substrates have a different coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than the PCBs they are mounted on, and are more apt to fail in high-speed applications. The HyperBGA material expands and contracts at similar rate as the board, making it a good alternative for applications where high speed, reliability, increased signal I/O, and overall package size are critical. This has turned out to be a very good thing, noted Vernon K. Wells, marketing specialist at Endicott International, especially for military and medical electronics, which are two of EI's target markets.
Jeffrey Knight, VP business development and strategic planning, discussed EI's plans for global expansion. "We're growing from just an Endicott footprint to being more global," he said. Part of that includes a manufacturing capability in Shenzen, which is scheduled to be operational this year, and another in Shanghai, opening early in 2007. Knight said the plan is to continue with R&D and early production in Endicott, then turning volume production over to Asia.
Another area EI has become involved with is thin-film roll-to-roll electronics manufacturing material with embedded passives, which will allow the military to wear displays in the fabric of their clothing, along with other interesting applications. Endicott Interconnect has been working with the United States Display Consortium (USDC), Binghamton University and Cornell University on this project as part of the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing.
Mark Ponzi, semiconductor manufacturing operations manager, took us on a comprehensive tour of the whole build-up substrate process. He explained that the HyperBGA is a sequential build-up product that goes through 7 circuitization steps and 6 lamination steps to create a panel that then becomes BGA substrates. Because they are dealing with very thin foils, handling and cleaning is a big concern. All the layers go through a water wash and electrostatic discharge cleaner before going into the cleanroom.
The lamination process involves high-pressure electric presses that create books of layers in six steps.
Our tour continued on through the copper-plating line, plasma cleaning, process control, and optical test areas. Optical testing is performed manually and defects are sent to the verification station so that shorts can be repaired as they are discovered, explained Ponzi. Our next visit was with John Kresge, senior engineer, who demonstrated laser via drilling and singulation that creates final high-performance chip carriers. This process is unique to EI. Rather than traditional mechanical routing, laser singulation yields 20% more pieces per panel, Kresge explained, and high-aspect ratio thru-hole drilling achieves 330-mm 50-µm vias — the size of a human hair. Finally, Paul Hart, lead engineer, and Vic Barba, director of engineering, demonstrated the first-level assembly line, where modules are assembled.
In the end, we met with James J. McNamara, president and CEO, who showed us some of the medical products for which the company supplies special packages. "We have been Endicott Interconnect for three years now, and we're doing well," said McNamara. "You do a good job for one firm, and the word gets out that you can handle the challenges of miniaturization." One package — a thin-film rolled disposable device that fits into a catheter for performing diagnostic testing — was reminiscent of Fantastic Voyage, the medical science fiction movie from the '70's.
Universal Instruments/Unovis
It was an exciting time to be visiting with Universal Instruments, as they announced their separation from Dover and subsequent acquisition by Francisco Partners, and had just formed two entities — Universal Intruments and Unovis. Jeroen Schmits, president of Universal, enthusiastically explained the restructuring of the company, and how it was going to help them move towards high-volume assembly. He said the intention was to be able to provide customers with a turn-key process from concept and feasibility through implementation, beta-testing, product ramp, and end-of-life.
"Unovis has the capability to hook into the product lifecycle process right at the start, and add value during the lifecycle of the product," explained Schmits.
George Westby, director of the Advanced Process Laboratory, which falls under the Unovis division in the restructuring, explained that the purpose of this organization is to provide support, reliability test, and failure analysis capabilities to the global electronics industry through applied research, consortia activities, affiliations with universities, and qualified in-house personnel. Westby said their specialty is fixing existing problems for OEMs and contract manufacturers by providing total solutions, and interfacing between the companies and equipment providers. The SMT Lab and Consortium has developed critical manufacturing processes for all component families, and a fundamental understanding of material interactions and environmental effects. They participate in product development and design, and cooperate with industrial partners to develop new methods and materials. Additionally, they have prototyping capability for cutting-edge technologies and provide root-cause failure analysis.
The lab has two complete production lines to make samples, explained Westby. All tools are up-to-date. Processes are developed on the equipment. Prototypes are run through a full battery of failure analysis tests including thermal shock, stress measurement, material analysis, environmental chambers, etc. During our tour of the lab, we saw failure analysis in action as Brian Roggeman, mechanical engineer, examined lead-free alloys that failed a drop-test to see where the cracks were. Dan Blass, research scientist, looked at package cross-sections containing tin-silver solder balls and eutectic solder paste to see how the process migrates.
Our visit wrapped up with a presentation from Jacques Coderre, product manager, at Unovis, who outlined the new company's focus on the semiconductor solutions that include systems integration, applications, equipment, sub-systems, and process and assembly. Coderre said the applications group will take Universal platform machines, and configure them for a given application, for example image sensor assembly, flip chip bonding applications, and flip-chip-on flex-for hard drive assemblies. Coderre noted that with system-in-package (SiP), we're seeing a collapse of the traditional packaging hierarchy, and semiconductor packaging assembly is converging with circuit board assembly.
Indium Corporation
Indium Corporation was founded 72 years ago with the intention of capitalizing on what indium metal would do for the world. Today, less than half of what they do involves indium. Short explained that before the company established itself, they wanted to make sure there would be enough raw materials available. Indium is not found in a vein by itself, but is a byproduct of other mined materials. The founders of the company were successful in this endeavor, and developing new products is what makes Indium a successful entity today.
Tim Jensen, lead-free program manager, explained that the company's strategy in developing new products is based on industry needs. They focus on where the industry needs to develop new materials and optimize the processes used to reach these products. To this end, they partner with many companies, and have established a process advancement and optimization roadmap.
According to Jensen, material needs in semiconductor packaging have entered a unique phase with lead-free compliance requirements. The challenge is to develop a whole new set of reliable materials and equipment to handle the reduction in component size, environmental stress, and thermal issues. No-flow underfill polymers, fluxes for wafer-level packaging, wafer-bumping materials, and thermal interface materials are some of Indium's product lines suited to the packaging market.
Presentations on Indium's latest product advancements featured an interactive demonstration of indium's thermal conductivity and ductility, where a photo of Kathy holding the burned napkin showed up in the introductory slides. Jordan Ross, product specialist, who clearly preferred props over slides, illustrated thermal properties with a piece of burned toast. He said that newer packages are being designed for thermal management, and that incorporating indium-based solder preforms that are also thermal interface materials, could avoid the need for an expensive heatsink, and would be easier to assemble.
Our visit to Indium concluded with a tour of the company's top-secret test labs. In the solder paste manufacturing area, we saw quality control technicians testing batches. Although Indium formulates products for mainstream use, they also specialize in custom products, and can produce an infinite number of different alloys. They use an atomizing technique, spraying molten solder that freezes into different sized particles of solder powder which is mixed with fluxes in different chemistries to produce pastes to accommodate various size apertures. Short explained that some of their products are processed in a cleanroom atmosphere, because they will be used in a cleanroom facility.
In the process simulation lab, Bob Davidson, lab technician, was screening fluxes for use in solder paste. A preliminary test for wetting was followed by solder sphere tests on bare copper. Jim Hisert, applications engineer, explained that the paste inspection machine examines and analyzes paste deposits to see how materials perform in the printing process. Short explained that many pieces of equipment used in the lab are designed internally. The laboratory-scale production equipment is used as a beta site to test product performance.
"We work very hard to support our products with people who understand what the products do," explained Short. He noted that quality and precision are important to customers, and they're willing to pay for that.
Epilogue
Our Roadshow program has taught us all so much about this industry that reaches far beyond the technology. On this trip, we were enlightened by all this cutting-edge technology tucked away from the main thoroughfares.
Each trip has been unique. The best part is how much fun we have meeting everyone involved — especially the technicians on the factory floors and test labs, who ordinarily remain behind the scenes. We learned more than can fit in the pages of our magazine or the website, but nothing goes to waste. The more we learn as editors, the more we can share with our readers. Next stop on the Roadshow — San Diego, CA. Stay tuned.
Figure 1. Endicott Interconnect welcomes the Advanced Packaging Roadshow crew.... |
Figure 2. Display of EI's HyperBGA lamination layout diagram of the steps to create a panel that then becomes BGA substrates. |
Figure 3. In the cleanroom, Nicole Swick, technician, removes any final particles from the material. |
Figure 4. In the mini-lab Ron Whiting, plating technician, performs an analysis of plating baths. |
Figure 5. The birthplace of IBM, in Endicott, NY. |
Figure 6. James McNamara, president and CEO, greets Gail Flower. |
Figure 7. Second stop on the AP Loves New York tour: Universal/Unovis... |
Figure 8. Sample preparation area for evaluating lead-free alloys. Mechanical tests are performed and then packages are cross-sectioned and examined for cracks. |
Figure 9. George Westby explains TGA/FTIR (Thermo Gravimetric Analyzer / Fourier Transform Infra Red) apparatus and how it is utilized for materials research |
Figure 10. B&L Metallograph used for examining cross sections. |
Figure 11. Dr. Tia Korhonen, material scientist, uses a pull tester to perform failure analysis tests on solder balls... |
Figure 12. In search of our next gig — the Roadshow crew takes five. |
Figure 13. The Indium welcoming committee included... |
Figure 14. Kathy Poggi conducted some thermal management experiments of her own. |
Figure 15. As it turns out, toast is not a good thermal conductor. Indium, on the other hand, works great. |
Figure 16. Rick Short educates the Roadshow crew on the origins of indium, illustrating his lesson with a schematic of a 20th century mine. |
Figure 17. Bob Davidson, lab technician, screens fluxes for use in solder paste. |
Figure 18. Jim Hisert explains how the paste inspection machine examines and analyzes paste deposits to see how materials perform throughout the printing process. |
Advanced Packaging Born to be Wild
By Françoise von Trapp, managing editor
"Get your motor running, head out on the highway, looking for adventure, and whatever comes your way…" * When colleagues ask us to describe what the Advanced Packaging Roadshow is all about, we, even as writers, have difficulty putting it into words. So far, no two trips have been alike. Sure, the premise is editorial. We come to learn about your company; meet your executive team, engineers, and technicians; tour your facility; and share what we know about the industry today, but we set a loose agenda purposely, because you just never know. It's an odyssey, of sorts.
For instance, on our most recent adventure in San Diego, CA I witnessed my first "car-becue" on the freeway. Gail's saga began a few days earlier, when she was stranded in the Narita airport in Japan due to a typhoon, and we weren't sure she'd make it back in time. But she did, minus a suitcase or two. And so our story begins.
This time, we put ourselves in the capable hands of industry marketing guru, Andrea Roberts and her business partner/husband, Dick Schedtler, who graciously hosted the entire Roadshow Crew in their home. David Barach, Group Publisher of Advanced Packaging, Solid State Technology, and SMT Magazines, made his Roadshow debut and joined the veterans as we visited Asymtek, Palomar Technologies in Carlsbad, and StratEdge in San Diego.
Asymtek
Our day began at Asymtek, where we were warmly welcomed by old friends Alec Babiarz, president business development, Alan Lewis, director of applications engineering; Roberta Foster-Smith, senior marketing communications manager; Cindy Curran, marketing communications specialist; and were introduced to John T. Byers, the new company president, and Frank Piracci, Spectrum Batch business unit manager.
Like the quintessential garage band that lands a big recording contract and goes platinum, Asymtek got a similar start in 1983, when Babiarz, former president Bob Ciardella, and Phil Majorca started the business by developing their motion system for dispensing – a benchtop automated system driven by a PC. The company was acquired by Nordson in 1996, and has since become a worldwide organization with application labs in Carlsbad, Ohio, Connecticut, Singapore, Shanghai, Guang Zhou, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and the Netherlands.
The company's core technology is automated fluid dispensing equipment that has evolved from auger pumps to positive linear piston and now jetting systems. They were the first to introduce non-contact jet dispensing to the industry in 1992. Foster-Smith explained that the company is driven by its philosophy to provide solutions and support to its customers, and this is how new technologies emerge. For example, when auger pumps weren't precise enough for flip chip underfill processes, Asymtek engineers invented a new process – mass flow calibration.
Byers says he anticipates lots of growth for the company due to the growth of packaging and an increased need in precision coating and underfilling technologies. The industry is moving towards jetting, and they have a lot of experience in that area. He says much of their success is due to their desire to be a worldwide support organization. "We get in the door with the technology, but it's our customer service that brings the repeat buys," he explained.
Lewis talked about his work with emerging technologies and noted that Asymtek's enabling technologies allow people to do things they couldn't do before. "Next-generation customers are designing products based on the capabilities of the jet," he said. Latest developments include a jet dispense application for jetting coatings. The company will focus on expanding markets such as implantable medical devices, conformal coating for automotive devices, flat panel displays, LEDs, and MEMS.
In the manufacturing facility, we watched technicians assembling, calibrating, and testing subsystems for Asymtek's Axiom, Millennium and Spectrum lines, as well as EFD's benchtop system that uses Asymtek's Dispensemate base platform. Asymtek also manufactures machines for EFD and March Plasma Systems, other Nordson Companies.
In the buy-off room, new machines are set up with an application and tested. This is the final step before shipment. Foster-Smith also noted that some are shipped and tested in the field. In the buy-off lab, Jaynie Park, Sr. applications engineer, demonstrated a jetting system by dispensing a UV-cure material in rows of dots to check for consistency. After seeing all the equipment at different stages of assembly, and previously only viewing dry runs on the show floor, this brief demonstration was just the thing to tie it all together.
Palomar Technologies
When you begin to hear back-end processing being referred to as "value-end", know that the phrase was coined by Bruce Hueners, president of Palomar Technologies, and you saw it in Advanced Packaging first. With more back-end processes being done at the wafer level using front-end equipment, the term "back-end" is becoming obsolete, but packaging is still its own technology. "Silicon is virtually free," explained Hueners, "packaging technology adds more value." As equipment manufacturers who have discovered a niche in process implementation, Palomar stands to benefit from this emerging trend.
Originally Hughes Aircraft, Palomar spun off in 1995 through a leveraged buy-out. Their bread and butter has historically been military and aerospace, explained Hueners, but he sees opportunity in the wireless infrastructure market, optoelectronics, and LEDs. It was the second time in one day we heard an industry expert mention LEDs as a big market driver for the advanced packaging industry, because high power LEDs require eutectic die-attach as part of their assembly process.
Palomar is not just a manufacturer of die and wire bonders. Hueners clarified that their core products are common platforms to address precision processes across multiple markets. "Our differentiator is the ability to develop and deliver robust, integrated, precision process solutions," he noted.
On our tour of the current facility, Don Beck, applications manager, showed us two of the original platforms –the Model 2470 wedge and the Model 2460 wire bonder,– developed 21 years ago and still being sold today. Beck said there are currently 2000 of the machines still in the field. Technology upgrades keep those products from becoming obsolete. Palomar's latest Model 8000 wire bonder doubles as a wafer bumping machine is a hybrid wire bonder and semiconductor wire bonder all in one system.
Next we saw the 3500, claimed to be the most versatile die bonder in the world. It can dispense adhesives, is both an epoxy die bonder and eutectic die bonder and can take care of flip chip applications as well. It can be fitted with tape-and-reel, waffle or gel-pak, automatic handlers, and can punch off wafers in its 710 sq in. work area. One customer's plant has 25 of these workhorses operating in a 24/7 production environment for over ten years and only one has experienced any mechanical failure. "The more complicated and advanced the microelectronic or optoelectonic packaging challenge, the better we like it," said Hueners.
The latest technology incorporated into Palomar's equipment is their Bond Data Miner, integrated data management software that can be installed on any Palomar machine and as a separate database. The software maintains machine calibration, reliability and maintenance statistics for system performance. It can track multiple machines, and also is compatible with third party equipment. One of the machines we saw, the 8000 Gold Ball Bonder, has Data Miner integrated into it. It can ball bump and planarize all in one step, and also stitch, making it possible to do both flip chip and wire bonds. It can be used for assembly of stacked packages that use both methods of interconnect.
StratEdge
Andrea told us the StratEdge guys would keep us entertained. She wasn't kidding. Tim Going, president, and Casey Krawiec, VP of North American sales, kept the jokes coming, which is always good when you're the last visit on a Roadshow Tour, with a trade show sandwiched in between. As a result, it also turned out to be our longest visit to a company to date. We spent 5 hours at StratEdge, and we now know more about how a hermetically sealed ceramic package is made than ever before. We also scored some really cool earrings made from gold plated ceramic packages.
Headquartered in San Diego, StratEdge was founded in 1992 and is a privately held corporation. In 2003, the company was reorganized, explained Going. It had been venture-backed for 15 years, but the VC went into bankruptcy, and only three companies funded by it survived – StratEdge being one of them. Going attributes a loyal customer and vendor base as part of their reason for survival. They were able to pay off their debt and bring back 80% of the workforce. "We're ever thankful to them for sticking it out all this time," he said.
The company specializes in manufacturing microwave, millimeter wave and high-speed digital packages and filters. Microelectronic assembly services are also offered. They have a line of standard packages as well as custom designs. "We are the first company to offer standard packages in an industry that has historically been only custom," noted Krawiec. StratEdge designs products with electrical performance in mind. "We've never had a package rejected because of electrical performance," said Going. To prove performance, they actually developed their own fixtures to test their packages. Material selection is a big part of product performance. Post-fired alumina ceramic substrates with laser machine cavities provide tight tolerances. This allows,short wire bonds during assembly of the die to the package. All gold conductors are also a part of StratEdge's formula. "Our customers are people who can't get the performance they need out of other technologies," said Going. StratEdge packages can be found in the Mars Rovers, Global Star satellites, airborne radar applications, GPS satellites, and other military classified applications, as well as in commercial telecom and test and measurement products.
To fully illustrate what goes into making sure their products are so reliable, we had a step-by-step tour through the 15000 sq. ft. facility, which, in addition to package assembly, has its own plating room, electronic assembly area, furnace room and closed loop waste treatment system so they don't discharge any waste chemicals into the general sewer system. Going left nothing out – and we got to see everything beginning with parts inspection, package assembly, plating, and then die placement, wire bonding, hermetic sealing in the furnace room, and final inspection. I think I was most impressed by Elna Javier, technician, who was responsible for hand painting liquid gold paste on one area of a very special ceramic part to complete the connection. This delicate operation was done with a single hair paint brush under a microscope, one part at a time.
Epilogue
Other things we learned on this trip: Mammoth Mountain is a great place to ski; there's nothing like guacamole made fresh at the table; Dick Schedtler and Andrea Roberts would make great innkeepers; and packaging is not only going to save the industry, it's going to save the world.
*Steppenwolf
Figure 1. Gail Flower, Editor-in-Chief gets a ride from Dick Schedtler, V.P. AR Marketing. |
Figure 2. Asymtek welcomes the Roadshow crew... |
Figure 3. John T. Byers, president, Asymtek, and Alec Barbiarz, president business development and co-founder. |
Figure 4. Flower, von Trapp, Foster-Smith and Barach suit up for the facility tour. |
Figure 5. Production assembly technicians Alberto Davolos, Dalina Hurta, Sherman Yarborough and Theresa Greenhill inspect assembly subsystems for the Axiom and Millennium. |
Figure 6. Karl Thorpe, production supervisor for Asymtek's Spectrum product explains the assembly process to Barach. |
Figure 7. Jaynie Park, Sr. applications engineer, demonstrates a jetting system by dispensing UV-cure material in rows of dots to check for consistency. |
Figure 8. Palomar Technologies was next on the tour. Here we are with... |
Figure 9. Hueners explained that the laser interferometer for testing and calibrating transducers measures micro-inches of movement at high frequency. |
Figure 10. Don Beck, applications manager, and Tim Smith, application engineer, demonstrate... |
Figure 11. Beck shows us a solar power panel that will be used in mobile applications, providing lighter, less cumbersome power. |
Figure 12. Allan Haas, engineering director explained the technology behind Palomar's Bond Data Miner integrated data management software. |
Figure 13. Last stop was at StratEdge. From left... |
Figure 14. Isabelle Abalon, operations supervisor, checks molded ceramic packages for fixture marks, and makes sure there is no carbon residue for proper plating. |
Figure 15. Oxide coated leadframes are ready for assembly. |
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