(July 13, 2007) SAN FRANCISO &#151 SEMICON West, July 16–20 in San Francisco, will feature more than 1,250 exhibitors in the Moscone Center from the 17th, highlighting new products, processes, and materials. Following are products to look for at the show from Juki, FINETECH, CHAD Industries and Asymtek, Kester, and Wentworth Labs.

Juki Corporation, headquartered in Morrisville, NC, will showcase the CX-1 advanced placement system at Booth 8021. It enables placement of flip chips, system-in-package (SiP) and bare die alongside standard SMT pick-and-place actions. The system, built on the base of a standard SMT machine, uses reportedly high-accuracy glass linear encoders and specialized software, which periodically checks and calibrates placement accuracy.

CHAD Industries (Anaheim, CA) will display its WaferMate300 wafer handling system at Asymtek’s (Carlsbad, CA) Booth 7357. The companies have collaborated to provide a fully automated solution for wafer-level manufacturing, wherein Asymtek’s Axiom X-1020 system integrates with the WaferMate300 wafer handler to enable wafer-level underfill processing. The handler will also be displayed at CHAD’s Booth 8414.

FINETECH, based in Berlin, Germany, is exhibiting the CRS 10, a compact rework system, at Booth 7634. It offers a semi-automated, four-stage rework cycle with remove, clean, reball, and replace steps. The system suits small- to medium-scale series assembly or high-precision rework of soldered components on medium to large SMD boards. Lead-free approved, the system includes minimized operator influence on the process, 10-&#181m accuracy, and QFN/MLF in-situ paste printing.

Itasca, IL-based Kester will display TSF-6852 lead-free, water-soluble, tacky soldering flux at Booth 7364. TSF-6852’s synthetic ingredients are said to eliminate naturally occurring raw materials typically found in fluxes, maximizing lot-to-lot consistency. The flux is room-temperature stable, and can be dropped in as a replacement for low-melting-point alloys, conventional tin/lead eutectic, and higher-temp lead-free alloys. It can be reflowed under air or nitrogen and reportedly leaves solder joints shiny post-reflow.

To address scaled-up pin counts and density on current- and next-generation probe cards that result from increased chip power, Wentworth Labs (brookfield, CT) created a vertical probe technology, Accumax, that handles up to 6&#215 the current power level per probe, according to the company. The technology achieves high-density probe pitches for testing leading-edge multi-core processors. Designed to allow individual probe replacement in-field, the tester includes several possible enhancements over current technology. The company will exhibit at Booth T13 and representative Bob Rogers will present a customer case study on the 17^th during SEMICON’s Technology Innovation Showcase.

For more on SEMICON, visit SEMI’s website, and see our SEMICON Product Preview in the May/June issue.