Universal Instruments designs advanced assembly line

Universal Instruments Corporation has designed an advanced assembly line that can assemble over 2000 flip chips per hour on flexible circuits.

The substrate is a thin flexible circuit that is normally processed in a carrier with eight to twelve circuits. Each comprises a 3mm to 5mm square pre-amplifier chip, five to ten discretes and a connector. An optimized line consists of a screen printer to apply solder paste to the modules, a high speed chipshooter to pick and place the chip capacitors and the connector, a flip chip placement machine with integrated dip fluxing, and a reflow oven. For some applications featuring high capacitor counts, two chipshooters would be required to optimize tact time.

Universal Instruments' chip placement platform configurations incorporate the company's proprietary, patented Variable Reluctance Motor (VRM) linear motors, featuring dual drives and one-micron linear encoders. This provides an unbeatable combination of high accuracy and high speed, and enables the machines to be used in clean room environments.

VRM technology is also at the heart of Universal's 30-spindle rotary Lightning head - a dynamic chip placement solution that is considerably smaller than equivalent mechanical turret heads typically deployed to place small discrete components.