Intelligent Wire Bond Pull Station for Microelectronics

Our technical objective is to develop a new generation of bond pull station by combining a patented fllumination and optics design, machine vision, strain gauge, high speed transport system and bond pull technologies. This system will have the intelligence to perform bond pull tests with no prior knowledge of the assembly. This intelligent wire bond pull station will 1) automatically search and identify bond wires, ball and wedge bonds on microelectronics assemblies in high speed; 2) determine its optimal bond pull position regardless of wire bond paths; 3) require no part programming or downloading of part infonnation prior to bond pull; 4) perform bond pull operation with no human intervention; and 5) document results for statistical process control. The results of this effort will be beneficial to both the military and commercial microelectronics manufacturing arena. Under the Phase I effort, Simpex will design, fabricate and demonstrate the performance of the intelligent wire bond pull staflon. Major efforts include miniaturization of our optics and illuinination design to accommodate the bond pull system; integrate laser proximity sensor to system controller; design and fabricate bond hook unit for the automated station; fabricate and integrate the Intelligent Bond Pull Station; demonstrate results of above tasks to government representatives at the end of contract. Combination of our system design, sensors, software algorithms and hardware integration will allow us to perform and monitor the bond pull process in real time. These intelligent systems wilt eliminate tedious set up times, loading and unloading of part specific information and images, reduce scrap and bottlenecks. Above all, it will provide tremendous labor savings and increase the quality of microelectronics hardware. This effort will provide a strong foundation for user friendly equipment which can be adapted to numerous quality control applications in thick film & thin film processes, microelectronics & electronics, and joining of metals and non-metals. Successful commercialization of this effort will recapture equipment sales, now dominated by foreign companies.